[Psychiatric distress and related risk factors of family caregivers who care for the demented elderly at home].

The objectives of our study were to assess psychiatric distress of caregivers who had been caring for the demented elderly at home and to examine the association of caregivers' psychiatric distress with putative risk factors. Subjects were 294 caregivers living in Amakusa, Kumamoto Prefecture of Japan, whose spouses, parents or other family members were registered at Amakusa Public Health Center as demented elderly. In 1998, Survey on Caregivers' Mental Health was conducted using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ12) as a measurement for general psychiatric state of caregivers. Two hundred and eighty-two caregivers responded to interviews with complaints of the following psychological symptoms: feelings of unhappiness (55.7%), of stress (41.8%), insomnia (29.4%) and depressed mood (29.1%). Seventy-six caregivers (27.2%) were identified as being above the cut-off point 4 for psychiatric distress caseness. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated caregivers' psychiatric distress was statistically associated with caregivers' age, the caregivers' perception of the severity of dementia, the number of years devoted to caregiving at home and perceived financial state. Being 50 to 69 years (OR = 0.37, 95% CI: 0.17-0.81) and being 70 years or older (OR = 0.35, 95% CI: 0.14-0.83) were negatively associated with caseness as compared to being 20 to 49 years. Caseness was positively related to the severity of the elderly's demented state (OR = 6.93, 95% CI: 1.99-24.19), 1 year to 2 years devoted to caregiving at home (OR = 3.26, 95% CI: 1.02-10.38), no family or social support (OR = 2.99, 95% CI: 1.12-7.96) and lower perceived financial state (always OR = 6.99, 95% CI: 2.77-17.64, sometimes OR = 2.41, 95% CI: 1.19-4.85). Reduction of caregivers' psychiatric distress is important for not merely the enhancement of quality of care for demented elders and caregivers' life but for the prevention of elder abuse or neglect. Our study suggests that a comprehensive assessment and intervention program is needed for the demented elderly and their caregivers, in order for caregivers to be able to adapt well to the challenges of caregiving and find personal meaning through caregiving.