title: Depression and associated factors of informal caregivers versus professional caregivers of demented patients.
abstract: To examine the differences in depressive state and associated factors between informal and professional caregivers, a cross-sectional study was carried out in 23 informal home-based caregivers of demented patients, 24 professional caregivers working in the dementia ward of a psychiatric hospital, and 31 controls. Measurements included severity of dementia (Clinical Dementia Rating Scale, Mini Mental State Examination, MMSE) and levels of caregivers depression (Beck Depression Inventory; BDI), care burden (Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview; ZBI) and quality of life (World Health Organization-Quality of Life-26, WHO-QOL26). Informal caregivers had the highest BDI score and ZBI and the lowest QOL among the three studied groups. Regarding informal caregivers, there was a strong positive correlation between BDI and ZBI scores. The BDI and ZBI scores were significantly high when patients exhibited behavioral problems. The four WHO-QOL categories (physical domain, psychological domain, social relationships and environment) had a strong negative correlation with BDI. Regression analysis demonstrated that the psychological domain points of WHO-QOL, role strain factor of ZBI and MMSE score were significantly associated with BDI. Regarding professional caregivers, their BDI score had a strong negative correlation with the physical and psychological domains and environment categories of WHO-QOL. Regression analysis demonstrated that their BDI score was significantly associated with the psychological domain and environment. It is thus very important to provide sufficient social care services and/or personal support to informal caregivers.
authors.affiliation: Kanagawa Psychiatric Center Kinkou Hospital, Yokohama, Japan. megumita@kitasato-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Megumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Katsutoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Miyaoka
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003704:Dementia / Q000523:psychology; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009726:Nurses; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011788:Quality of Life; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology