About this Medicine article

Depression in Frail Elders: Impact on Family Caregivers by Maida J. Sewitch; Jane McCusker; Nandini Dendukuri; Mark J. Yaffe is a Medicine article available to read on EtoBox.

## Abstract ## Objectives To examine the relationship between depression among medically ill, frail elders and family caregivers' hours of care, health status, and quality of life. ## Design and Methods A cross‐sectional study of 193 family caregivers of seniors treated in the emergency department (ED) was conducted. Measures included patient depression (Geriatric Depression Scale—15), and caregivers' hours of care, mental health and physical functioning (SF‐36), and quality of life (EQ‐5D). ## Results Mean caregiver age was 60.0 ± 16.1 years and 70.5% were female. More caregivers of depressed seniors provided more care in the previous month (37.3% __vs__ 22.4%, __p__ = 0.03), had poor mental health (63.5% __vs__ 47.0%, __p__ = 0.03), and poor perceived quality of life (63.5% __vs__ 50.4%, __p__ = 0.04) compared to caregivers of non‐depressed seniors. Multiple logistic regression analyses indicated that patient depression was associated with poor caregiver quality of life (OR = 3.15, 95% CI 1.48, 6.73), and poor mental health in spousal and adult child caregivers (OR = 2.72, 95% CI = 0.88, 8.39, and OR = 3.29, 95% CI = 1.10, 9.86, respectively). ## Conclusions Psychosocial support

Author

Maida J. Sewitch; Jane McCusker; Nandini Dendukuri; Mark J. Yaffe

Publisher

John Wiley and Sons; Wiley (John Wiley & Sons); John Wiley & Sons Inc.; Wiley; Research Square (ISSN 0885-6230)

Published

2004

Language

EN

Field

Medicine (Health Sciences)