Patient affect and caregiver burden in dementia

BACKGROUND:
Numerous studies focusing on the burden of caregivers of dementia patients have been published. However, there have been few studies focusing on positive affect as an important factor affecting the caregiver burden, and only a few studies comparing the caregiver burden between different dementia diseases have been reported.
METHODS:
Three hundred and thirty-seven consecutive caregivers of people with dementia participated in this study. The caregiver burden was evaluated by the short version of the Japanese version of the Zarit Burden Interview.
RESULTS:
Positive affect scores had a significant relationship with the scores of the short version of the Zarit Burden Interview. Caregivers for patients with dementia with Lewy bodies or frontotemporal dementia suffered from a greater burden than those for patients with Alzheimer's disease dementia.
CONCLUSIONS:
The caregiver burden differed between people caring for patients with different dementia diseases. Positive affect of dementia patients has a significant relationship with caregiver burden, independently from neuropsychiatric symptoms of patients.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Yoshiko Kawano et. al. Patient affect and caregiver burden in dementia. Psychogeriatrics (2019) 20(2), 189-195, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/psyg.12487. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.