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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Psychological distress, caregiving, and metabolic variables | | Author(s) | Peter P Vitaliano, James M Scanlan, Claudia Krenz |
| Journal title | The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, vol 51B, no 5, September 1996 |
| Pages | pp P290-P299 |
| Keywords | Anxiety ; Stress ; Nutrition ; Spouses as carers ; Dementia ; Correlation. |
| Annotation | This study examined relationships between chronic stress and insulin/glucose in two groups of non-diabetics (median age 69.4): 78 spouse caregivers (CGs) of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, and age and gender matched spouses of non-demented controls (COs). Results obtained suggest that metabolic variables are more related to perceived distress (burden, depression, hassles, absence of uplifts) than to caregiver status. Because of higher insulin levels, distressed CGs may be at greater risk for subsequent metabolic and cardiovascular problems than COs. The results also suggest that CGs show greater tendency to obesity than COs, and might benefit from interventions which combine dietary improvement, regular exercise, and stress reduction. The negative health consequences associated with caregiving may be related to psychological distress. Future studies evaluating CG health need to include such measures in their assessment, rather than simply caregiving status. |
| Accession Number | CPA-970722008 A |
| Classmark | ENP: QNH: CF: P6:SN: EA: 49 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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