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Medical Care Activities Among Spouses of Older Adults With Functional Disability: Implications for Caregiving Difficulties and Gains.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVES:Spouses of older adults with functional disability often provide help with their partner's medical care. Yet little is known about the implications of these activities for spouses' caregiving experiences. We examined how spouses' medical care activities are linked to both positive and negative aspects of caregiving (difficulties and gains), and whether these associations vary by their age, gender, or education. DESIGN:Retrospective analysis of data from the 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study and National Study of Caregiving cross-sectional studies. SETTING:Caregivers and care recipients/proxies were interviewed by telephone at home. PARTICIPANTS:Nationally representative U.S. sample of 345 spousal caregivers and their community-dwelling care recipients aged 65 years and older. MEASUREMENTS:Caregivers' self-reported sociodemographics, care activities, health conditions, well-being, and support resources. Care recipients (or proxies) reported on their health conditions and dementia status. RESULTS:A higher number of health system interaction tasks (e.g., making appointments) were significantly associated with greater emotional caregiving difficulties, whereas a higher number of medical/nursing tasks (e.g., giving shots/injections) were significantly linked to greater caregiving gains. A higher number of medical/nursing tasks were also significantly associated with greater physical difficulties for caregiving wives and spouses with less education. CONCLUSIONS:Medical care activities may have both positive and negative consequences for spousal caregivers, which depend partly on sociodemographics. This study underscores the importance of ensuring that spouses have the resources and support needed to provide complex care to their partners.

SUBMITTER: Polenick CA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5650913 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Medical Care Activities Among Spouses of Older Adults With Functional Disability: Implications for Caregiving Difficulties and Gains.

Polenick Courtney A CA Leggett Amanda N AN Kales Helen C HC

The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry 20170504 10

<h4>Objectives</h4>Spouses of older adults with functional disability often provide help with their partner's medical care. Yet little is known about the implications of these activities for spouses' caregiving experiences. We examined how spouses' medical care activities are linked to both positive and negative aspects of caregiving (difficulties and gains), and whether these associations vary by their age, gender, or education.<h4>Design</h4>Retrospective analysis of data from the 2011 Nationa ...[more]

PMID: 28652082

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Project description:BackgroundThe relationship between leisure activities (LA) in old age and prevention of disability has not been fully investigated, and age and gender differences of these relationships are unknown. This study aimed to investigate whether physical and cognitive LA predicted incident disability among community-dwelling older adults by age and gender.MethodsWe prospectively observed 8,275 residents aged 65 or above without disability at baseline for 3 years. Incident disability was defined as a new certification of the public long-term care insurance system. LA were classified into two types: physical LA and cognitive LA. The frequency of LA was categorized into frequent (i.e., once a week or more), moderate (i.e., monthly or yearly), and non-engagement. Covariates included age, gender, family number, education, perceived economic situation, body mass index, chronic medical conditions, alcohol consumption, smoking status, regular dental visits, depression, cognitive functioning, and social participation. Multivariable Poisson regression models were used to estimate adjusted cumulative incidence ratio (CIR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for incident disability. We performed stratified analyses by age groups (i.e., the young-old aged 65-74 and the old-old aged 75-97) and gender (i.e., men and women).ResultsThe 3-year cumulative incidence of disability was 7.5%. After adjustment for covariates and mutual adjustment for both types of LA, a significant dose-response relationship between more frequent LA and lower risk of incident disability was found in young-old physical LA (P-trend < 0.001), in old-old cognitive LA (P-trend = 0.012), in male cognitive LA (P-trend = 0.006), and in female physical LA (P-trend = 0.030). Compared with people without LA, adjusted CIR (95% CI) of frequent LA was 0.47 (0.30-0.74) in young-old physical, 0.75 (0.58-0.96) in old-old cognitive, 0.65 (0.46-0.89) in male cognitive, and 0.70 (0.52-0.95) in female physical. Regarding the effect modification according to age and gender, only interaction between age and physical LA significantly prevented incident disability (P for interaction = 0.019).ConclusionWe found age differences in the association of physical LA with incident disability among community-dwelling older adults. An effective measure to prevent long-term care in the community would be to recommend frequent physical LA for the young-old.

Project description:BackgroundAn increasing number of older people in Germany receive care at home from family members, particularly from spouses. Family care has been associated not only with subjective burden but also with negative effects on caregivers' health. A heterogeneous group, caregivers are confronted with individual situational demands and use different available coping strategies. To date, little is known about the relationship between burden and coping by spousal caregivers, particularly in the context of geriatric patients without dementia.ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to explore the burden and coping strategies of caregiving spouses of geriatric patients without dementia and with a hospitalization within the last year. To help explore this population, a typology is presented that has been based on reported perceptions of home care burden and individual coping strategies. Furthermore, a case study is presented for each type of spousal caregiver.MethodsThe study used a concurrent mixed method design with a sample of nine spousal caregivers (mean age: 78.9 years). Four women and five men were recruited in an acute hospital setting during the TIGER study. Quantitative data were collected using a self-questionnaire and qualitative data were gathered through nine problem-centered interviews with spousal caregivers. The latter were subsequently analyzed utilizing the structured content analysis method. The data were then summarized to nine individual cases. Finally, the results were clustered using the empirically grounded construction of types and typologies. Each type of spousal caregiver is presented by a case study.ResultsThree types of caregiving spouses were identified: "The Caring Partner", "The Worried Manager" and "The Desperate Overburdened". These types differ primarily in the level of subjective burden and caregiving stress, the coping strategies, the motivation for caregiving, and expressed emotions.ConclusionsThe development of this new typology of caregiving spouses could help health care professionals better understand caregiving arrangements and thus provide more targeted advice.Trial registrationThe TIGER study was registered with clinicaltrials.gov: NCT03513159 . Registered on April 17, 2018.

Dataset Information

Medical Care Activities Among Spouses of Older Adults With Functional Disability: Implications for Caregiving Difficulties and Gains.

Publications

Medical Care Activities Among Spouses of Older Adults With Functional Disability: Implications for Caregiving Difficulties and Gains.

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