Centre for Policy on Ageing



Does type of disease matter? — Gender differences among Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease spouse caregivers
Author(s)	Karen Hooker, Margaret Manoogian-O'Dell, Deborah J Monahan
Journal title	The Gerontologist, vol 40, no 5, October 2000
Pages	pp 568-573
Keywords	Dementia ; Parkinson's disease ; Spouses as carers ; Husbands ; Wives ; United States of America.
Annotation	Mental health outcomes are widely reported among spouse caregivers, with wives generally faring worse than husbands. The authors hypothesised that gender differences would not be as strong in a cognitively intact group, because caring for cognitively intact spouses may involve less severe reciprocity losses. Gender differences in coping strategies within each group were also examined. Spouse caregivers for patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD; n=88) and Parkinson's disease (PD; n=87) were interviewed. Wives in the AD group reported significantly worse mental health outcomes than husbands, while wives and husbands in the PD group showed no differences. AD caregiving wives were less likely to use problem-focused coping strategies. There were no significant gender differences in either group for social support or emotion-focused coping. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-010130207 A
Classmark	EA: CR6: P6:SN: SNA: SNW: 7T
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.