فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

BACKGROUND: Caregiver stress is harmful to the health of both caregivers and people living withAlzheimer’s disease or other dementias. The present study was conducted to assess stress and itspredictors of people living with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias’ caregivers.METHODS: The present descriptive, analytical, cross‑sectional study was conducted in December2017–June 2018 in Isfahan, Iran. Data were collected by interviewing 99 caregivers had atleast 6  months of experience caring for a patient diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, throughquestionnaires developed by the researcher. A convenience sample (easy access) of caregivers wasrecruited from calling the home of formally diagnosed with Alzheimer’s patient, that have registered ineducational hospitals affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and psychiatrists’ office bothpaid caregivers (formal) and unpaid caregivers (family). All caregivers provided informed consent.The type and severity of the relationship between the dependent (stress) and independent variablewere assessed using Pearson’s and Spearman’s correlation coefficients, the independent t‑test, andthe multivariate regression analysis.RESULTS: The caregivers’ mean stress score was 25.4 ± 10.9 (range: 4–54). About 80% of thecaregivers were female. Age and stress score was correlated (P = 0.004), the mean stress score wassignificantly higher in female caregivers (P = 0.04), informal caregivers (P < 0.001), and significantlylower in the caregivers with previous experience of caring for Alzheimer’s patients (P = 0.02) or thoseintroduced by service companies (P = 0.005). Variables including the family relationship with thepatient (P = 0.01), kind of caregiving (P = 0.03), and previous experience of caring for Alzheimer’spatients (P = 0.04) were stronger predictors of the stress score.CONCLUSION: Stress is a challenge in promoting mental health among dementia caregivers.Providing social support with an emphasis on physical, mental, and social health is mandatory,especially for female and family caregivers, to promote stress management, mental health in thisgroup, and enable optimal and purposeful care.