Needs of Alzheimer’s Charges’ Caregivers in Poland in the Covid-19 Pandemic—An Observational Study

Jagoda Rusowicz, Krzysztof Pezdek and Joanna Szczepańska-Gieracha
Additional contact information
Jagoda Rusowicz: Department of Physiotherapy, University School of Physical Education, 51-612 Wrocław, Poland
Krzysztof Pezdek: Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University School of Physical Education, 51-612 Wroclaw, Poland
Joanna Szczepańska-Gieracha: Department of Physiotherapy, University School of Physical Education, 51-612 Wrocław, Poland

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 9, 1-11

Abstract: In Poland, 92% of elderly people with dementia are cared for at home from diagnosis until death, and 44% of caregivers provide care on their own, without any support from other people. The aim of this study was to identify the needs, created because of the Covid-19 pandemic, of caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The study group consisted of 85 caregivers in the age range from 23 to 78 years and 80 (91.1%) were women. The questionnaire on the life situation of the caregiver and 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) were used. High levels of stress were found in 75 of the 85 subjects, representing 88% of the total. The greatest difficulties were identified in health care and in finding additional care for the charge. PSS-10 correlated with the deterioration of illness during Covid-19, changes in daily functioning, and concerns about both the health of the charge and caregiver. The level of stress severity in the caregiver group of charges with mild AD was higher than in the caregiver group of charges with moderate AD. The provision of extra care and professional psychological support for caregivers were identified as the greatest needs.

Keywords: dementia; elderly; social support; stress; caregiver burden (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/9/4493/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/9/4493/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:9:p:4493-:d:542172

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().