Globėjų, slaugančių demencija sergančius asmenis namuose,psichosocialinio streso vertinimas

Abstract

SUMMARY

Relevance and novelty of the topic. Cargivers of persons with clinical dementia experience a lot of social, psychological and physical health problems and feel burdened. Until recently there has been very little analysis of stress factors influencing the caregivers stress. Aim of the study. To measure and examine psychosocial stress of family members and relatives who are caregivers of persons with dementia at home. Methods. Caregivers of persons with dementia filled out an anonymous qeustionaire. The interviews were conducted from December, 2004 to February, 2005. Respondents, who participated in research, were members of Kaunas and Vilnius Alzheimer’s clubs, and the data was collected during the meetings of these two clubs in Kaunas Dainava Center for Psychological Health and Vilnius Antakalnis health centre respectively. 22 respondents were from Kaunas and 28 from Vilnius. From the 50 respondents, who participated in research, 35 (70%) were women, and 15 (30%) were men. The average age was 62 years (the range of age was 40-94 years). The questionnaire that was used to gather data consisted of five parts: general questions about the caregiver and the person with clinical dementia; Greene’s Relatives Stress Scale, Clinical Dementia Rating Scale and Rapid Disability Rating Scale. Results. 7 (14%) respondents experienced a low level of psychosocial stress, 30 (60%) – average, and 13 (26%) – high level of stress. Most often the caregiver for person with clinical dementia was his or her daughter. The highest social stress was experienced by people who took care of persons with severe stage of dementia. When psychosocial stress scale for analytical purposes was divided into subscales of social, psychological or health aspects, the results showed that higher degree of disability had more impact on subscale of social aspects (73%) than on other kinds of stress’ aspects. Analysis of the results showed that the major stress factors were caregiver’s income, how long they have been nursing a person with dementia, and the condition of their own health. Conclusions. 1. Most respondents experienced average level of stress (50%), yet a large group (38%) of respondents experienced a high level of stress. 2. The strongest negative factors for social stress and social activity of the respondents’ were income and the level of disability of person with clinical dementia (p ≤ 0,05). One of the greatest burdens on caregivers was that it was not possible for them to leave on a holiday (74%). 3. When psychological factors were evaluated, health condition of the caregiver correlated with income, general level of stress, level of disability of person with clinical dementia, and degree of severity of dementia. Subjective evaluation of their health by the respondent was the strongest factor for psychological stress (p ≤ 0,05). 4. The main factors for psychological-social stress of the caregivers were: level of severity of dementia and level of disability of the person they were taking care of, the length of nursing, the lack of money for care, the respondent’s health condition and the household in which a person lived (apartment building as opposed to a private house) (p ≤ 0,05).