Overwhelmed: a Dementia Caregiver Vital Sign

Background The emotional stress of caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias is high and results in adverse effects on caregivers and the persons living with disease. In preliminary work, caregiver reports of regularly feeling “completely overwhelmed” were associated with lack of measurable clinical benefit from a comprehensive dementia care program. Objective To examine the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of all caregivers who felt overwhelmed at entry into a comprehensive dementia care program, the trajectory of this symptom over 1 year, and its predictive value for 1-year caregiver outcomes. Design Longitudinal cohort study Setting Academic health center Participants Caregivers of patients enrolled in a comprehensive dementia care program Exposures Caregiver report of feeling “completely overwhelmed” at baseline Main Measures Caregiver report of feeling “completely overwhelmed” at baseline and 1 year, and validated scales of caregiver strain, distress, depressive symptoms, burden, mortality, and long-term nursing home placement Key Results Compared to caregivers who were not overwhelmed, overwhelmed caregivers had more distress from behavioral symptoms of the person living with dementia, worse depression scores, and higher composite dementia burden scores at baseline. They also had worse depressive symptoms, strain, and composite burden scores at 1 year, after adjustment for baseline scores. Having an overwhelmed caregiver did not predict long-term nursing home placement or mortality among persons with dementia. Conclusions A single question about whether a caregiver is overwhelmed might indicate caregivers who have considerable current and future symptom burden and who may benefit from increased support and resources.