[Alzheimer's disease: factors affecting caregivers' workload].
The aim of this study was to investigate which factors could play a role on the work-load of the Alzheimer patients' caregivers. The work-load was measured by means of Zarit's scale and inserted as dependent variable in a regression model, where the following independent variables were considered: education and MMSE of patients, age, sex of both patients and caregivers. The relevant factors resulted patient's age and MMSE, being significantly (p < 0.05) inversely associated with work-load. This score reached his maximum when patient's MMSE ranged between 14 and 16 (medium impairment). However, a large variability was found in this interval, suggesting a possible effect of other factors. In addition, we observed a decrement of work-load when patients were older, being higher at 50 and lower after 72. This effect might be explained by the significant change (especially in terms of social and familial life) due to the illness when the patient is relatively young. When the patient is older, Alzheimer' disease had smaller effect on the caregiver's work-load.
Psicologo Servizio di Psicologia Clinica, Ospedale San Giovanni Calibita, Fatebenefratelli, Roma.
M
M
Consorti
L
L
Quintiliani
F
F
Ricciardi
D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology*