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Association of dementia comorbidities with caregivers' physical, psychological, social, and financial burden.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Zhang, J; Wang, J; Liu, H; Wu, C
Published in: BMC geriatrics
January 2023

Informal caregivers of older adults with dementia may experience substantial burdens during their caregiving process, especially when caring for older adults with other comorbid conditions. This study evaluated whether and how comorbidity burden for persons with dementia (PWD) was associated with caregivers' physical, psychological, social, and financial burden as well as caregiving gain.Data were from 1,065 community-dwelling older adults living with dementia and their primary caregivers in the National Health and Aging Trends Study and the National Study of Caregiving. PWD's comorbidity burden was measured by the count of chronic conditions and the pattern of comorbidity identified by the latent class analysis (LCA). We considered four domains of caregiving burden-physical, psychological, social, and financial burden. We used linear regressions to identify the unadjusted and adjusted associations between PWD's comorbidity burden and caregiving burden and gain.Of 1,065 PWD, 13.5% had 0-1 and 24.9% had 5 or more number of comorbid chronic conditions, respectively. After multivariable adjustment, an additional chronic condition is associated with an 0.11- and 0.36-point increase in caregivers' physical and psychological burden, respectively. Caregivers of PWD with 5 or more chronic conditions had a 0.64- and 2.22-point higher score of physical and psychological burden, respectively, than those caring for PWD with 0 or 1 comorbid condition. LCA divided PWD into two classes, a high comorbidity class (69.0%) and a low comorbidity class (31.0%). Caregivers of PWD in the high comorbidity burden class had a 0.46-point higher score of physical caregiving burden than those in the low comorbidity burden class. No significant association was found between care recipients' comorbidity burden and their caregivers' social and financial burden or caregiving gain.The comorbidity burden of PWD was associated with their caregivers' physical and psychological caregiving burden. Relevant interventions to manage the comorbid conditions of people living with dementia and support their caregivers are crucial to improving their physical health and psychological wellbeing.

Duke Scholars

Published In

BMC geriatrics

DOI

EISSN

1471-2318

ISSN

1471-2318

Publication Date

January 2023

Volume

23

Issue

1

Start / End Page

60

Related Subject Headings

  • Humans
  • Geriatrics
  • Financial Stress
  • Dementia
  • Comorbidity
  • Caregivers
  • Aging
  • Aged
  • 4206 Public health
  • 4203 Health services and systems
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
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Zhang, J., Wang, J., Liu, H., & Wu, C. (2023). Association of dementia comorbidities with caregivers' physical, psychological, social, and financial burden. BMC Geriatrics, 23(1), 60. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-023-03774-9
Zhang, Jingyi, Jing Wang, Hua Liu, and Chenkai Wu. “Association of dementia comorbidities with caregivers' physical, psychological, social, and financial burden.BMC Geriatrics 23, no. 1 (January 2023): 60. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-023-03774-9.
Zhang, Jingyi, et al. “Association of dementia comorbidities with caregivers' physical, psychological, social, and financial burden.BMC Geriatrics, vol. 23, no. 1, Jan. 2023, p. 60. Epmc, doi:10.1186/s12877-023-03774-9.
Journal cover image

Published In

BMC geriatrics

DOI

EISSN

1471-2318

ISSN

1471-2318

Publication Date

January 2023

Volume

23

Issue

1

Start / End Page

60

Related Subject Headings

  • Humans
  • Geriatrics
  • Financial Stress
  • Dementia
  • Comorbidity
  • Caregivers
  • Aging
  • Aged
  • 4206 Public health
  • 4203 Health services and systems