from Medical News Today:
One quarter of all family caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients succumb to the stress of providing care to a loved one and become hospital patients themselves, according to an Indiana University study published in the November 2008 issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine, the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University Center for Aging Research report in a new study that a quarter of family caregivers of Alzheimer's dementia patients had at least one emergency room visit or hospitalization every six months.
While it has long been anecdotally recognized that caring for a family member with Alzheimer's disease is stressful, this work is the first to measure just how stressful providing care is and to examine the impact of this stress on both the physical and mental health of the family caregiver.
The study found that the behavior and functioning of the individual with Alzheimer's dementia, rather than cognitive ability, were the major factors determining whether the caregiver went to the emergency room or was hospitalized.
One quarter of all family caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients succumb to the stress of providing care to a loved one and become hospital patients themselves, according to an Indiana University study published in the November 2008 issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine, the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University Center for Aging Research report in a new study that a quarter of family caregivers of Alzheimer's dementia patients had at least one emergency room visit or hospitalization every six months.
While it has long been anecdotally recognized that caring for a family member with Alzheimer's disease is stressful, this work is the first to measure just how stressful providing care is and to examine the impact of this stress on both the physical and mental health of the family caregiver.
The study found that the behavior and functioning of the individual with Alzheimer's dementia, rather than cognitive ability, were the major factors determining whether the caregiver went to the emergency room or was hospitalized.
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