Caring for Family Members With Alzheimer’s and Burnout Syndrome: Impairment of the Health of Housewives

Frontiers in Psychology

article

María Luisa Avargues-Navarro¹  Mercedes Borda-Mas¹  Alina de las Mercedes Campos-Puente²  María Ángeles Pérez-San-Gregorio¹  Agustín Martín-Rodríguez¹  Milagrosa Sánchez-Martín³ 

[1] Department of Personality, CTS-432 Research Team, University of Seville;Research Directorate, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega University;Department of Psychology, Universidad Loyola Andalucía

关键词: burnout;    family caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients;    housewives;    health;    emotional disorders;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00576

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Being a housewife may already be a psychosocial risk factor leading to chronic stress and burnout, and this may be aggravated when the housewife must also become the caregiver of a family member with Alzheimer’s. The burnout syndrome and how it can affect general health and the presence of emotional disorders were studied in housewives who were family caregivers of an Alzheimer’s patient. The sample selected was made up of 193 housewives, 96 of whom were also caregivers for a family member with Alzheimer’s. Sociodemographic measures used were the Maslach Burnout Inventory and The General Health Questionnaire. Burnout was found in a significant percentage of participants. Emotional exhaustion, effect on general health, and presence of emotional disorders were higher in caregivers. Emotional exhaustion, general health, and anxiety were more influential, while depersonalization affected the appearance of depressive symptoms more. Being a caregiver and emotional exhaustion appeared to be the best predictors of emotional disorders. It was confirmed that emotional exhaustion influenced appearance of anxiety and depression equally in both groups. In the case of caregivers, an exhaustion-illness spiral was produced. In this group, emotional exhaustion seemed to become more severe as a consequence of the presence of chronic illnesses, and possibly influence the number of hours spent on care and having children living at home. Future research should analyze in greater depth and in a larger sample, the role of these variables and widen the focus of attention to personal variables that could be acting as protective factors and could be subject to intervention. The discussion concludes with some actions that should be included in prevention programs for the groups studied.

【 授权许可】

CC BY