Satisfaction with family relations and support according to elderly persons caring for elderly relatives

Sociodemographic, clinical, and psychosocial factors associated with burden in older caregivers: a cross-sectional study

The task of caring can negatively affect the physical and mental health; therefore, it is important to understand which factors are associated with burden in older caregivers of older adults.

Objective

This study aimed to explore sociodemographic, clinical, and psychosocial factors associated with burden in older caregivers of older adults.

Methods

This is a cross-sectional study developed with 349 older caregivers who were registered at a Family Health Unit of a city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Household interviews were conducted and data were collected on the sociodemographic (profile, family income), clinical (self-reported pain, sleep, frailty), and psychosocial (burden, family functioning, depressive symptoms, stress) characteristics of the caregivers as well as dependence on activities of daily living and cognition in the care recipients.

Results

Women predominated in the sample (76.5%) and mean age was 69.5 years. The mean burden score was 18.06 points, with 47.9% above the cutoff of 16 points, denoting excessive burden. The bivariate model revealed associations between burden and financial insufficiency, family dysfunction, difficulty sleeping, pain, perceived stress, depressive symptoms, frailty, and multimorbidity among the caregivers as well as worse functional and cognitive performance in the care recipients. The controlled model revealed an association between burden and depressive symptoms (β=16.75; 95%CI 1.80-31.68).

Conclusions

We identified an association between burden and depressive symptoms, underscoring the need for the planning and implementation of specific actions directed at caregivers in order to minimize the impact on health and to improve the quality of life.

Difficulties in Caring for the Older Adults: Perspective of Brazilian and Portuguese Caregivers

This study aims to understand the difficulties in caring for the older adults with functional dependence from the perspective of Brazilian and Portuguese caregivers. This is a study based on the Theory of Social Representations, based on the Thematic Content Analysis proposed by Bardin, carried out with 21 informal caregivers of older adults in Brazil and 11 informal caregivers of older adults in Portugal. The instrument consisted of a questionnaire with sociodemographic data and data on health conditions along with an open interview with guiding questions on the theme of care. Data were analyzed using the Content Analysis technique proposed by Bardin, with the help of the QRS NVivo^® Version 11 software (QSR International, Burlington, MA, USA). Three categories emerged from the speeches: "Caregiver burden", "Caregiver support network" and "Older adults resistance". The main difficulties mentioned by caregivers were associated with family articulation in meeting the needs of their older adults, whether due to the excessive demand of tasks, which results in overloading the caregiver, or the behaviors of the older adults themselves, or even the availability of a truly supportive and effective network.

Correlation of family functionality and burden of informal caregivers of hospitalized older adults

AIM

to analyze the relationship between family functionality and burden of informal caregivers of hospitalized older people.

METHODS

this is a cross-sectional study conducted with 98 informal caregivers of hospitalized older people in an inpatient unit of a large hospital in São Carlos, São Paulo. For data collection were used questionnaires to sociodemographic and care context characterization, to evaluate burden and family functionality. Descriptive analyzes and Spearman's correlation coefficient were used.

RESULTS

female caregivers predominated, who took care of their parents and had no training. Approximately 59.8% of caregivers had good family functionality and 49.5% scored for mild to moderate burden. There was a negative correlation, moderate magnitude, between family functionality and burden (p<0,001). The higher the burden score, the lower the family functionality score and vice versa.

CONCLUSION

caregivers with high burden had worse family functionality. Therefore, nurses need to identify such conditions early and implement assertive interventions so that the family functions as a therapeutic resource.

Correlação da funcionalidade familiar e sobrecarga de cuidadores informais de idosos hospitalizados

RESUMO Objetivo analisar a relação entre funcionalidade familiar e sobrecarga de cuidadores informais de idosos hospitalizados. Método estudo transversal, quantitativo, realizado com 98 cuidadores informais de idosos hospitalizados em São Carlos, São Paulo. Para a coleta de dados, foram utilizados questionários para caracterização sociodemográfica e do contexto de cuidado, para avaliação da sobrecarga e da funcionalidade familiar. Foram usadas análises descritivas e coeficiente de correlação de Spearman. Resultados predominaram cuidadores do sexo feminino, que cuidavam de seus progenitores e não possuíam capacitação. Aproximadamente 59,8% deles apresentaram boa funcionalidade familiar, e 49,5%, sobrecarga leve a moderada. Houve correlação negativa, de moderada magnitude, entre funcionalidade familiar e sobrecarga (p<0,001). Quanto maior o escore de sobrecarga, menor o escore de funcionalidade familiar e vice-versa. Conclusão cuidadores com alta sobrecarga apresentaram pior funcionalidade familiar. Diante disso, enfermeiros precisam identificar precocemente tais condições e implementar intervenções assertivas para que a família funcione como um recurso terapêutico.

Quality of life, burden, family emotional support: a model for older adults who are caregivers

OBJECTIVE

To investigate associations between quality of life, sex, age, burden, and nature of emotional support available in the family in older adults who are caregivers of older relatives.

METHOD

Cross-sectional and correlational study on 148 caregivers gathered in public and private healthcare services, who were subjected to psychological measures of quality of life, burden, exchange of emotional support, sex, and age. Data were analyzed using Chi-square, Fisher's exact test and path analyses (p < 0.05).

RESULTS

A total of 77% women, average age of 69.7 years. There were significant associations between exchange of support and burden due to the provided assistance, being a woman and satisfaction with the received support, satisfaction with the received support and burden, burden and quality of life, and satisfaction with the received support and feeling of burden due to the provided support.

CONCLUSION

Satisfaction with the received emotional support moderate the association between sex and burden, and such moderate the association between satisfaction with emotional support and perceived quality of life.