1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«Our aim was twofold: (1) to document the characteristics of the caregiving context during the transition period to the caregiver role following diagnostic disclosure of Alzheimer’s disease; and (2) to compare them according to caregiver gender and kinship tie to the relative with dementia.» (p. 1110-1111)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«Of the 122 caregivers who took part in the study, 97 were women and 25 were men […]. Their mean age was 61 years (SD = 13.62) and their mean number of years of schooling was 13 (SD = 4.11). In terms of kinship ties, the sample broke down as follows: 31 wives, 13 husbands, 66 female offspring and 12 male offspring.» (p. 1112)

Instruments :
Questionnaire

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«Regarding the first objective, the findings reveal that the caregiving context following diagnostic disclosure of Alzheimer disease is marked by real challenges. In this regard, the first finding to stand out is to the effect that almost three quarters of the caregivers received no emotional support from family or friends. Worse still, we noted the near total absence of informational and instrumental support. It may be, however, that the need for instrumental support was still not all that pressing, given that the cognitive impairments of the cared-for relatives were not very pronounced. […] The results concerning our second objective show that the challenges faced by caregivers seem to vary by gender and kinship. In our sample, women caregivers experienced more psychological distress than men caregivers did. In our study, we cannot exclude the possibility of a link between this higher level of psychological distress in women and the fact that, compared with men caregivers, they seem less capable of controlling their disturbing thoughts and that they report more family conflicts. […] The differences as a function of kinship tie seem to demonstrate in our sample that, compared with offspring, spouses are less able to respond to the disruptive behaviors of their relative. On the one hand, spouses are exposed to these behaviors day after day; offspring are less often so given that the vast majority does not live with the relative. On the other hand, disruptive behaviors signify for spouses that their long-standing intimate relationship with their partner has been compromised.» (p. 1116)