Does gender moderate resiliency variables and posttraumatic stress symptoms in informal caregivers of neurocritical care patients? An exploratory study

ABSTRACT

We examined gender differences between resiliency factors (i.e. mindfulness, self-efficacy, coping, intimate care, and caregiver preparedness) and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in informal caregivers of patients in the neuroscience intensive care unit (Neuro-ICU). Ninety-two informal caregivers were enrolled during patients’ hospitalization and completed resiliency measures at baseline, and a PTSS measure at baseline, 3 and 6 months. We conducted five ANCOVAs to explore gender and resiliency on PTSS. No significant main effects of gender on PTSS were observed across time points. However, main effects were seen for resiliency on PTSS at baseline for informal caregivers with high (vs. low) mindfulness, coping, and self-efficacy. Gender moderated the association between mindfulness and PTSS (i.e. high mindfulness at baseline was associated with lower PTSS in males compared to females at 3 months) and intimate care and PTSS (high intimate care at baseline was associated with lower PTSS in males than females at 6 months; high intimate care at baseline for females was associated with lower PTSS at 6 months than females with low intimate care). Overall, we observed associations among informal caregivers’ gender, resiliency, and PTSS, with males particularly benefitting from mindfulness and intimate care. These findings hold value for future inquiry into gender differences in this population with possible clinical implications.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• informal caregiver
• mindfulness
• Neuro-ICU
• posttraumatic stress
• resilience

Author contributions

AMV is responsible for the integrity of the entire study, study concepts, data acquisition, and manuscript review. MVG and EGL are responsible for study design, statistical analysis, literature research, manuscript preparation and manuscript editing. AL, MR, IS are responsible for the literature review, manuscript preparation, and manuscript editing.

Disclosure statement

Dr. Vranceanu reported receiving funding from the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health and serving on the scientific advisory board for the Calm application outside of the submitted work. The authors declare that they have no other conflicts of interest. The authors report no proprietary or commercial interest in any product mentioned or concept discussed in this article.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standard

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the American Heart Association awarded to Ana-Maria Vranceanu, and the National Institute of Nursing Research.