Journal article

Informal caregivers are people providing some type of unpaid, ongoing assistance to a person with a chronic illness or disability. Long-term care measures and policies cannot take place without taking into account the quantitatively crucial role played by informal caregivers. We use the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS), the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS), and the Study on Health and Ageing in Europe (SHARE) to measure the prevalence of informal caregivers in the European population, and analyze associated socio-demographic factors.

This article is part of a series, Supporting Family Caregivers:No Longer Home Alone, published in collaboration with the AARP Public Policy Institute. Results of focus groups, conducted as part of the AARP Public Policy Institute's No Longer Home Alone video project, supported evidence that family caregivers aren't given the information they need to manage the complex care regimens of family members. This series of articles and accompanying videos aims to help nurses provide caregivers with the tools they need to manage their family member's health care at home.

Cancer is a chronic and life-threatening disease that causes complications to the patients diagnosed with it as well as to those who were taking care of them; i.e. the caregivers who normally are family members of the patient. Cancer caregivers experience burden and stress during the period of caregiving which contributes to their quality of life (QOL). However, there is scarce literature on the QOL of gastrointestinal cancer caregivers in the local population.

Study aims: 1) To characterize distinct profiles of cancer caregivers' physical and mental health during the end-of-life caregiving period; 2) to identify the background and antecedent factors associated with the distinct profiles of caregivers; 3) to determine the relevance of caregiver profiles to the risk for developing prolonged grief symptoms. Design & methods:This study was a secondary analysis of spouses/partners (n = 198) who participated in the Cancer Caregiver Study.

It is unclear whether caregiving has an impact on the physical, mental and functional health of older caregivers. This study aimed to describe physical, mental and functional health in relation to family caregiving in old age (60+) over a six-year period. The study comprised 2,294 randomly selected individuals (60-96 years) from the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care, who answered the question on whether they were caregivers and who were followed up six years later. The prevalence of family caregivers was 13.1% and the incidence was 12.4%.

At present, the level of health literacy, social support, and care ability of dementia caregivers is not very high. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to construct a structural equation model to explore the relationship between health literacy, social support, and the care ability of dementia caregivers. It is hoped that the study will provide a theoretical basis for future intervention. We recruited 225 dementia patients and their caregivers from August 2018 to June 2019 at the Department of Geriatrics and Neurology.

Despite the traumatic and fatal nature of motor neurone disease (MND) and the caring experiences being described as unrelenting, little is known about risk of psychiatric morbidity and Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) for family caregivers. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of caregivers bereaved in 2016-2018 was distributed by the five MND Associations in Australia (2019). Validated tools for PGD (PG-13), anxiety, depression, and family functioning were included. Multinomial logistic regression was used to compare the factors associated with grief.

Providing educational interventions to informal dementia caregivers has been shown to have numerous positive outcomes including improving general well-being and quality of life as well as reducing depression, anxiety, and caregiver stress. The purpose of this study is the development, delivery, and evaluation of caregiver conferences to educate informal dementia caregivers about dementia and caregiving. We provided eight half-day conferences for informal caregivers to educate them about Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) and make them aware of community and state resources.

This is a cross-sectional study conducted with 537 family caregivers of people with mental disorders. The objective was to quantify the degree of burden experienced by men and women, and identify the most affected dimensions of their lives and the factors associated with burden manifestation by gender. The Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) scale was used to assess burden. Mean burden was 22.8 points (SD = 6.3) for men and 27.8 points (SD = 17.8) for women.

Objective Insomnia is a common, distressing, and impairing psychological outcome experienced by informal caregivers (ICs) of patients with cancer. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and acupuncture both have known benefits for patients with cancer, but such benefits have yet to be evaluated among ICs. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary effects of CBT-I and acupuncture among ICs with moderate or greater levels of insomnia.