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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Do family caregivers perceive more difficulty when they look after patients with early onset dementia compared to those with late onset dementia? | | Author(s) | Asuna Arai, Teruhisa Matsumoto, Manabu Ikeda |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 22, no 12, December 2007 |
| Pages | pp 1255-1261 |
| Source | http://www.interscience.wiley.com |
| Keywords | Family care ; Stress ; Dementia ; Early ; Over 70s ; Social surveys ; Japan. |
| Annotation | Family caregiving situations for patients with early onset dementia (EOD) and late onset dementia (LOD) were compared, and specific problems experienced by relatives caring for EOD patients were identified. Participants were chosen from 92 consecutive caregiver-patient dyads, comprising co-residing family caregivers and outpatients fulfilling the diagnostic criteria for dementia. Patients were assessed according to cognitive function, neuropsychiatric disturbance and severity of dementia. Caregivers completed a self-administered questionnaire that included items on their sociodemographic status and caregiving situation. Caregiver burden was assessed by the Japanese version of the Zarit Burden Interview. 68 dyads were eligible for analysis, 14 of which included patients with EOD and 54 with LOD. There were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of patient clinical features, duration of caregiving, number of hours during which caregivers were relieved per day, or number of hours of caregiving per day. No significant associations were detected between the type of dementia and caregiver characteristics (e.g. health status) or caregiver burden, even after adjusting for confounding variables. However, the caregivers of EOD patients had greater perceived difficulties due to patient behavioural disturbances than did the caregivers of LOD patients. Additional resources, such as care services, should be provided for sufferers of EOD, in order to allow family caregivers to cope with difficulties associated with patient behavioural problems. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-080212204 A |
| Classmark | P6:SJ: QNH: EA: 4J: BBK: 3F: 7DT |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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