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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Arq Neuropsiquiatr 2016; 74(12): 967-973
DOI: 10.1590/0004-282X20160162
ARTICLE

Caregivers’ resilience is independent from the clinical symptoms of dementia

A resiliência dos cuidadores independe dos sintomas clínicos da demência
Rachel Dias
1   Universidade do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Psiquiatria, Centro para Doenças de Alzheimer e outras Desordens Mentais na Velhice, Rio de Janeiro RJ, Brasil;
,
José Pedro Simões-Neto
2   Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Departamento de Sociologia e Ciência Política, Florianópolis SC, Brasil.
,
Raquel Luiza Santos
1   Universidade do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Psiquiatria, Centro para Doenças de Alzheimer e outras Desordens Mentais na Velhice, Rio de Janeiro RJ, Brasil;
,
Maria Fernanda Barroso de Sousa
1   Universidade do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Psiquiatria, Centro para Doenças de Alzheimer e outras Desordens Mentais na Velhice, Rio de Janeiro RJ, Brasil;
,
Maria Alice Tourinho Baptista
1   Universidade do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Psiquiatria, Centro para Doenças de Alzheimer e outras Desordens Mentais na Velhice, Rio de Janeiro RJ, Brasil;
,
Isabel Barbeito Lacerda
1   Universidade do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Psiquiatria, Centro para Doenças de Alzheimer e outras Desordens Mentais na Velhice, Rio de Janeiro RJ, Brasil;
,
Nathalia Ramos Santos Kimura
1   Universidade do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Psiquiatria, Centro para Doenças de Alzheimer e outras Desordens Mentais na Velhice, Rio de Janeiro RJ, Brasil;
,
Marcia Cristina Nascimento Dourado
1   Universidade do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Psiquiatria, Centro para Doenças de Alzheimer e outras Desordens Mentais na Velhice, Rio de Janeiro RJ, Brasil;
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ABSTRACT

Resilience is the capacity for successful adaptation when faced with the stress of adversity. We aimed to investigate the relationship between caregivers’ resilience and the sociodemographic and clinical factors of people with dementia. Cross-sectional assessment of 58 people with dementia and their caregiver dyads showed that most caregivers were female adult children. The caregivers reported moderate to higher levels of resilience, lower levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms and moderate levels of burden. Resilience was not related to the caregiver’s gender (p = 0.883), nor clinical (p = 0.807) or emotional problems (p = 0.420). The regression showed that resilience was related to the caregiver’s quality of life (p < 0.01) and inversely associated with their depressive symptoms (p < 0.01). There was no relationship between caregivers’ resilience and the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of people with dementia. We can assume that resilience is an individual characteristic. Support groups should also focus on the factors that may increase resilience among caregivers.

RESUMO

Resiliência é a capacidade de adaptação bem-sucedida, quando confrontado com o estresse da adversidade. Nosso objetivo foi investigar a relação entre a resiliência dos cuidadores e fatores sociodemográficos e clínicos de pessoas com demência. A avaliação transversal de 58 pessoas com demência e suas duplas de cuidadores, mostrou que a maioria dos cuidadores eram do sexo feminino e filhas adultas. Os cuidadores relataram níveis moderados a altos de resiliência, níveis mais baixos de ansiedade e sintomas depressivos e níveis moderados de sobrecarga. Resiliência não estava relacionada ao gênero (p = 0.883) e problemas clínicos (p = 0.807) e emocionais (p = 0.420) dos cuidadores. A regressão mostrou que a resiliência foi relacionada à qualidade de vida (p < 0,01) dos cuidadores e inversamente associada com os sintomas depressivos (p < 0,01). Não havia uma relação significativa entre a resiliência dos cuidadores e as características sociodemográficos e clínicas das pessoas com demência. Podemos supor que a resiliência é uma característica individual. Os grupos de apoio devem enfatizar os fatores que podem aumentar a resiliência entre os cuidadores.

resilience, psychological - caregivers - dementia - depression - quality of life
resiliência psicológica - cuidadores - demência - depressão - qualidade de vida

Support:

This study was supported by CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – Brasil. Rachel Dias is a master’s fellow from CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior.




Publication History

Received: 03 June 2016

Accepted: 14 September 2016

Article published online:
06 September 2023

© 2023. Academia Brasileira de Neurologia. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commecial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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