Coping strategies: faith as emotional support of elderly caregivers with dementia

• Author(s): Cecato,Juliana Francisca ; Aramaki,Flávia Ogava ; Souza,Aruana Bentini ; Montiel,José Maria ; Bartholomeu,Daniel ; Martinelli,José Eduardo
• Date: 2013
• Origin: Oasisbr
• Subject(s): Spirituality, faith healing, elderly, Alzheimer's disease.
• Document Type: Journal article
• Language: English

Description

OBJECTIVES: To analyze the contribution of faith influence on the depressive symptoms in caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease.
METHODS: Cross-sectional study with 24 subjects of both sexes, with schooling over five years, ages from 26 to 70 years and attending caring for the elderly courses in the city of Jundiaí. A questionnaire was developed with information about affective, emotional and religious issues. Besides this instrument, caregiver burden was evaluated with the short Zarit Scale and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Spearman correlation coefficient was used to correlate the GDS with age, marital status and Zarit Scale.
RESULTS: The mean score on Zarit scale was 14.24 points, indicating light overburden. The average score of the GDS was 3.38 points which did not score for depressive syndrome. There was a negative, moderate, and no significant correlation coefficient between age and the GDS variable (r = -0.38; p = 0.065) and the Zarit Scale (r = -0.46; p = 0.062). The correlation coefficient (moderate and positive) showed a trend to significance between the Zarit Scale and GDS (r = 0.48; p = 0.051). A hundred percent of the participants confirmed they have faith, 69.56% reported to have experienced faith as a support to face Alzheimer's negative symptoms during patient's care.
CONCLUSION: Caregivers and palliative patients use faith as an aid to face everyday weariness. It can be concluded that spirituality seems to improve the ability to deal with the incurable disease condition.