Burden of family caregivers in Alzheimer’s disease: The role of caregivers’ perception of cognitive impairment

Abstract

Objectives

This study examined the role of caregivers’ perception of cognitive impairment in burden of family caregivers in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We hypothesized that the evaluation of cognitive impairment by family caregivers plays a pivotal role in burden.

Methods

The study included 110 dyads (person with AD and their caregiver) recruited from a Memory Unit in France. The cognitive impairment and depressive symptoms of person with AD were evaluated by a geriatrician using the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15). Caregivers provided self-reports on the perception of cognitive impairment (IQCODE) of the care recipient, the caregiving burden (ZBI), depressive symptoms (GDS-15), and self-esteem (RSE). Descriptive analyses, comparison of different caregiver burden groups, and multinomial logistic regression analyses to understand correlates of caregiver burden were conducted with SPSS^®, version 20.

Results

The findings show that the caregivers are on average 60 years old and the majority are women. They care for persons with AD, who are on average 82 years old and most of whom are women. Our results show that the duration of caregiving, depression of the caregiver, and caregivers’ perception of cognitive impairment contribute significantly to burden of caregiver.

Discussion

This study shows that it is necessary to adopt the caregiver-centered approach to support the dyad. The role of the caregivers’ perception of cognitive impairment in AD should be developed when supporting caregivers in suffering.

Keywords:

• Alzheimer disease
• caregiver burden
• objective cognitive impairment
• family caregiver’s perception
• stress

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all participants (persons with AD and family caregivers).

Author contributions

E. Altintas designed the study and wrote the paper. M. Luyat assisted with writing the article. K. Gallouj designed the study and supervised the data collection. G. Hülür assisted with the writing of the article, improved the English, and formulated the research question(s). M. Haj supervised the study and assisted with writing the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data of this study is available with the corresponding author. The data has not been previously presented orally or by poster at scientific meetings.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.