Living with dementia: increased level of caregiver stress in times of COVID-19
Living with dementia: increased level of caregiver stress in times of COVID-19
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DOI：
10.1017/s1041610220001593
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发表时间：
2020-11-01
影响因子：
7
通讯作者：
Allegri, Ricardo F.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Cohen, Gabriela;Russo, Maria Julieta;Allegri, Ricardo F.
2019冠状病毒病在阿根廷的大流行对老年痴呆症患者的护理产生了深刻影响。我们的目的是研究强制性的社会隔离如何影响压力照顾者和照顾的家庭成员的痴呆症患者在社区的最初4周的隔离后，在我们的设置。我们对2020年4月收集的80名阿尔茨海默病（AD）或相关痴呆症患者的家庭照顾者进行了问卷调查。我们设计了一个视觉模拟量表来测试护理负担的水平。痴呆患者及其照顾者的特征进行了描述性（平均值，标准差，频率和百分比）和推理统计（卡方检验）分析。样本包括患有不同阶段痴呆症的老年人（平均年龄：80.51 +/- 7.65）。家庭是65%的主要护理提供者。总体而言，COVID-19隔离增加了痴呆症阶段的照顾者的压力，但与病情较轻的患者相比，照顾严重病例的人压力更大。其他研究结果是，一半的痴呆症患者焦虑增加，大多数家庭成员停止了所有类型的认知和物理治疗。家庭成员的主要关切是严重痴呆症病例，担心在流行病期间没有付费护理人员，而对于轻度病例，担心在帮助患者进行工具活动时传播疾病。必须规划公共卫生部门、护理人员和家庭之间的伙伴关系，以保证在这些独特的COVID-19时期护理的连续性。
COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina has affected the care of older adults with dementia deeply. Our objective was to study how the obligatory social isolation affected stress caregiver and burden of care of family members of subjects living with dementia in the community after the initial 4 weeks of quarantine in our setting. We did a questionnaire survey among 80 family caregivers of persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or related dementia collected on April 2020. We designed a visual analog scale to test the level of the burden of care. Characteristics of people with dementia and their caregivers were analyzed with descriptive (mean, standard deviation, frequency and percent) and inferential statistics (chi-square test). The sample included older adults (mean age: 80.51 +/- 7.65) with different stages of dementia. Family was the primary provider of care in 65%. Overall, COVID-19 confinement increased stress caregiver independently of the dementia stage, but those caring for severe cases had more stress compared to milder forms of the disease. Other findings were that half of the subjects with dementia experienced increased anxiety and that most family members discontinued all sort of cognitive and physical therapies. Family members' main concerns were for severe dementia cases, fear of absence of the paid caregiver during the epidemic, and for mild cases fear of spreading the disease while assisting patients with instrumental activities. A partnership between departments of public health, care workers and families must be planned to guarantee continuity of care during these unique COVID-19 times.