压力过程理论视角下失智老人家庭照顾者的负担研究

Burden of Family Caregivers of the Mentally Retarded Elderly from the Perspective of Stress Process Theory

失智老人的家庭照顾是长期压力性事件,照顾者需要承担很大的负担。研究将界定照顾者的负担内涵,筛选出影响照顾者负担的因素。基于压力过程理论定义负担包括压力源和主观负荷,其中压力源包含社会人口学因素、照顾投入、获得的社会支持以及与疾病相关的因素。采用定量研究方法,共获取了271组失智老人及其家庭照顾者的数据,采用逐步回归方法来分析和筛选影响照顾者主观负荷的压力源。照顾者的健康、获得的非正式社会支持、与失智老人的关系、完成任务数量、年龄以及老人的记忆与行为问题和疾病阶段是影响照顾者主观负荷水平的因素。在制定相关政策时,尤其要关注以上显著因素,以提升照顾者的福祉。

Taking care of the elderly with dementia is a long-term stressful event,and the caregivers bear heavy burden.This study clearly defined caregiver's burden,and detected the related factors that affected burden levels.Based on Stress Process Theory,this study defined burden including stressors and subjective loads.Stressors included socio-demographic factors,care-giving involvements,access to social support,and disease-related factors.Quantitative research method has been applied,and data of a total of 271 dyads of elderly people with dementia and their family caregivers were gained.Stepwise regression model was used to analyze the stressors that affected subjective loads of caregivers.The study proved that caregivers mental health situation,accesses to informal social support,time on taking care of the elders daily life,the elders memory and behavioral problems,and duration of care-giving were factors that affected the levels of caregivers subjective loads significantly.It has inspired us to pay much more attention to caregivers with those factors when we set up related policies to enhance the well-being of the caregivers.