Abstract
Objective
To investigate the cross-sectional associations between depression in people with
dementia and both caregiver burden and quality of life in 8 European countries, and
to test these associations compared with the presence of other neuropsychiatric symptoms.
Design
Cross-sectional study.
Setting and Participants
In total, 1223 dyads comprised of informal caregivers and people with dementia living
in a community-dwelling setting, recruited from the Right Time Place Care study, a
cohort survey from 8 European countries.
Measures
To test the associations between depression (according to the Cornell Scale for Depression
in Dementia) and informal caregiver burden (defined by the Zarit scale and hours of
supervision in terms of Resource Utilization in Dementia), distress (defined by the
Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire distress score), and quality of life (according
to the visual analogue scale and 12-item General Health Questionnaire).
Results
Linear regressions showed an association between depression and main outcomes (Zarit
scale: β 3.7; P = .001; hours of supervision: β 1.7; P = .004; Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire distress score: β 1.2; P = .002). A similar association was found concerning psychological and overall well-being
(12-item General Health Questionnaire: β 1.8; P < .001; Euroqol Visual Analogue Scale: β −4.1; P = .003). Both associations remained significant despite the presence of other NPS
and after adjusting for confounders.
Conclusions and Implications
Further studies are needed to assess whether providing tailored strategies for optimizing
diagnosis and managing of depression in people with dementia might improve caregiver
quality of life and reduce their burden in the community-dwelling setting.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 16, 2020
Footnotes
The Right Time Place Care study was funded by a grant from the European Commission within 7th Framework Program (Project 242153).
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 AMDA - The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine.
