Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Impact of cognitive and physical impairment on carer burden and quality of life

  • Published:
Quality of Life Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background and purpose

How the cognitive and/or physical impairment experienced by care recipients impacts on their carers is not well understood. This study investigated the effect of type of impairment of care recipients on the level of burden and quality of life (QOL) of elderly Australian carers.

Methods

This article describes a nested cross-sectional substudy of 276 older women (aged 78–83 years) enrolled in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health who indicated they were providing care for someone living with them.

Results

In this nationally representative sample of elderly women carers, 60% were looking after people (predominantly their husbands) who had both cognitive and physical impairments. Carers of people with both types of impairments had higher scores for objective burden of caring than those caring for people with either type of impairment alone. In contrast, scores for limitations on their own lives were higher among women caring for people with cognitive impairments (with or without physical impairments).

Conclusions

The majority of elderly women caring for someone else are likely to suffer multifaceted burdens of caring.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Lee, C. (2001). Experiences of family caregiving among older Australian women. Journal of Health Psychology, 6, 393–404.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Lee, C. & Porteous, J. (2002). Experiences of family caregiving among middle-aged Australian Women. Feminism & Psychology, 12(1), 79–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Kausar, R. & Powell, G. (1999). Coping with caring: Cognitive appraisal of post-onset personality and physical changes in patients with neurological disorders. Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal, 10(2), 58–63.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Schultz, R., Beach, S., Lind, B., Martire, L., Zdaniuk, B., Hirrsc, G., Jackson S. & Burton, L. (1999). Involvement in caregiving and adjustment to death of spouse: Findings from the caregiver health study. Journal of the American Medical Association, 285, 3123–3129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Cannuscio, C., Jones, C., Kawachi, I., Colditz, G., Berkman, L. & Rimm, E. (2002). Reverberations of family illness: A longitudinal assessment of informal caregiving and mental health status in the nurse’s health study. American Journal of Public Health, 92, 1305–1311.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Lee, S., Colditz, G., Berkman, L. & Kawachi, I. (2003). Caregiving and risk of coronary heart disease in US women. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 24, 113–119.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Broe, G., Jorm, A., Creasy, H., Casey, B., Bennett, H., Cullen, J., Edelbrock, D., Waite, L. & Grayson, D. (1999). Carer distress in the general population: Results from the Sydney older persons study. Age and Ageing, 28, 307–311.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Draper, B., Poulos, C., Cole, A., Poulos, R., & Ehrlich, F. (1992). A comparison of caregivers for elderly stroke and dementia victims. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 40, 896–901.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. van den Heuvel, E., de Witte, L., Schure, L., Sanderman, R. & Meyboom-de Jong, B. (2001). Risk factors for burn out in caregivers of stroke patients and possibilities for intervention. Clinical Rehabilitation, 15, 669–677.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Scholt op Reimer, W., De Hann, R., Rijnders, P., Limburg, M. & van den Bos, G. (1998). The burden of caregiving in partners of long-term stroke survivors. Stroke, 29, 1605–1611.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Silliman, R. & Sternberg, J. (1988). Family caregiving: Impact of patient functioning and underlying causes of dependency. Gerontologist, 28(3), 377–382.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Brodaty, H., Thomson, C., Thompson, C. & Fine, M. (2005). Why caregivers of people with dementia don’t use services. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 20, 537–546.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Lee, C., Dobson, A., Brown, W., Bryson, L., Byles, J., Warner-Smith, P. & Young, A. (2005). Cohort profile: The Australian longitudinal study on women’s health. International Journal of Epidemiology, 34, 987–991.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Katz, S., Ford, A., Moskowitz, R., Jackson, B. & Jaffe, M. (1963). Studies of illness in the aged. The index of ADL: A standardised measure of biological and psychological function. Journal of the American Medical Association, 185(12), 914–919.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Jorm, A. (1994). A short form of the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE): Development and cross-validation. Psychological Medicine, 24, 145–153.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Ware, J., Snow, K., Kosinski, M. & Gandek, B. (1993). SF-36 health survey: Manual and interpretation guide. Boston: Nimrod Press.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Koenig, HG., Weslund, RE. & George, LK., et al. (1993). Abbreviating the Duke social support index for use in chronically ill elderly individuals. Psychosomatics, 34, 61–69.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Powers, J., Goodger, B. & Byles, J. (2004). Assessment of the abbreviated Duke social support index in a cohort of older Australian women. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 23, 71–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Robinson B. (1983) Validation of a caregiver strain index. Journal of Gerontology, 38, 344–348.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Novak, M. & Guest, C. (1989). Application of a multidimensional caregiver burden inventory. Gerontologist, 29, 798–803.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Toseland, R., McCallion, P., Gerber, T. & Banks, S. (2002). Predictors of health and human services use by persons with dementia and their family caregivers. Social Science and Medicine, 55, 1255–1266.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Hare, R., Rogers, H., Lester, H., McManus, R. & Mant, J. (2006). What do stroke patients and their carers want from community services? Family Practice, 23, 131–136.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The research on which this paper is based was conducted as part of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health at the University of Newcastle and the University of Queensland. We are grateful to the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing for funding and to the women who provided the survey data. Dr. Leigh Tooth was supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Capacity Building Grant (#252834) while this research was undertaken.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Leigh Tooth, Jayne Lucke & Annette Dobson

  2. School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Anne Russell

  3. School of Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Gerard Byrne

  4. School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Christina Lee

  5. Queensland Health, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Andrew Wilson

Authors
  1. Leigh Tooth
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Anne Russell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jayne Lucke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Gerard Byrne
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Christina Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Andrew Wilson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Annette Dobson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jayne Lucke.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tooth, L., Russell, A., Lucke, J. et al. Impact of cognitive and physical impairment on carer burden and quality of life. Qual Life Res 17, 267–273 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-007-9300-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-007-9300-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation