Relationship between anxiety and psychological resilience of caregivers for community-dwelling dementia patients / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the relationship between anxiety and mental resilience of caregivers for community-dwelling dementia patients.Methods:Patients in four communities who met the diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease(AD)were randomly selected and their caregivers served as study subjects.General characteristics, anxiety and resilience of caregivers(n=592)were investigated with a questionnaire developed by ourselves, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Scale(GAD-7), and the Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale(CDRISC).Results:There were 592 subjects in the study, with 185 cases(31.3%)having anxiety.Differences in manifestations of anxiety existed between caregivers for AD patients in different age groups( P<0.01). Anxiety levels were also influenced by AD patient caregivers' gender, educational level and blood relationship to the patient( P<0.05). The differences were reflected in tenacity( F=72.58), strength( F=82.19), optimism( F=12.57)and the total elasticity score( F=162.88). The Spearman correlation was used to analyze the association of caregiver anxiety with caregivers' general characteristics and domains of psychological resilience.The results showed that anxiety was negatively correlated with gender( r=-0.09, P<0.05), education level( r=-0.112, P<0.01), blood relationship( r=-0.122, P<0.01), psychoelasticity and three other domains( r=-0.457, -0.495, -0.208, -0.60, all P<0.01), but was positively correlated with age( r=0.127, P<0.01). Logistic regression analysis showed that psychoelasticity was a protective factor for anxiety in caregivers for community-dwelling AD patients( β=-0.323, P<0.05). Conclusions:While treating Alzheimer's patients, clinicians can consider psychotherapy measures to improve the psychological resilience of their caregivers.