Psychophysiological mediators of caregiver stress and differential cognitive decline.
The authors examined relationships between chronic stress and cognitive decline and whether such relationships were mediated by psychophysiological factors. Ninety-six caregivers of spouses with Alzheimer's disease (AD) were compared with 95 similar noncaregiver spouses. All were free of diabetes. Although the groups started similarly, over 2 years caregivers declined by a small but significant amount (1 raw score point and 4 percentile points, each p<.05) on Shipley Vocabulary. In contrast, noncaregivers did not change. Higher hostile attribution (beta=-.09; p<.05) and metabolic risk (beta=-.10; p<.05) in caregivers mediated the cognitive decline. This is the first study of cognitive decline and mediators in caregivers. This work has implications for caregiver and care-recipient health and for research on cognition, psychophysiology, diabetes, and AD.
Vitaliano
Peter P
PP
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. pvital@u.washington.edu
Echeverria
Diana
D
Yi
Joyce
J
Phillips
Paul E M
PE
Young
Heather
H
Siegler
Ilene C
IC
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010552:Personality Assessment; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D011603:Psychophysiology; D012016:Reference Values; D012306:Risk; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*