Q. I have been trying to care for my husband who has dementia and the strain is wearing on me. I love my husband and want to keep him at home with me, but I don’t know what to do. Am I at greater risk as a caregiver myself?
Caring for a loved one with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most stressful jobs around.
More than 40 percent of family and other unpaid caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s and other dementia rate the emotional stress of caregiving as high or very high, compared with 28 percent of caregivers of other older people, according to the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2010 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures report. About one-third of family caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s and other dementia also have symptoms of depression, the report noted.
What’s more, new research published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society has revealed that older married adults whose spouse has dementia are at significantly higher risk for developing dementia themselves, compared with similar older married adults whose spouse never develops dementia.
Dementia caregivers have been shown to provide more assistance, and to report more personal sacrifices and stress, than those who care for physically impaired elderly without dementia. While there are many published studies showing that dementia caregivers are at higher risk for health problems and depression, none have examined risk for dementia in the caregiver.
The 2,442 subjects (1,221 married couples) in the study aged 65 and older from Northern Utah, without dementia at onset, were studied for up to 12 years to monitor for onset of dementia in husbands, wives or both. During this time, 125 cases of dementia only in the husband were diagnosed, 70 only in the wife, and 30 where both spouses were diagnosed (60 people). The results showed that incident dementia was significantly associated with older age, and having a spouse with dementia.
What remains unclear is how much of this association is due to caregiver stress compared with environment. One thing is for sure, you need help. In fact, a little extra help at home can not only make it easier for you to care for your husband, but it could keep him safely at home for a longer time.
CAREGivers with Home Instead Senior Care of Frederick County have experience caring for older adults with Alzheimer’s disease. Contact your area office to learn more today, and call your local Area Agency on Aging for additional resources in your community.
For more information about Home Instead Senior Care of Frederick County, visit www.homeinstead.com/627. For more about the study log on to http://www.americangeriatrics.org/press/id:665.
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