Impacto das inabilidades comunicativas de idosos com demência na sobrecarga e na qualidade de vida dos seus cuidadores

• Ano de defesa: 2010
• Autor(a) principal: Roque, Francelise Pivetta [UNIFESP]
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)
• Palavras-chave em Português: Demência; Distúbios da fala; Cuidadores; Qualidade de vida; Transtornos da comunicação; Transtornos da linguagem; Dementia; Language disorders; Speech disorders; Caregivers; Quality of life; Communication disorders
• Link de acesso: http://repositorio.unifesp.br/handle/11600/9712

Background: Health is facing a new challenge - the managing of incapacitating chronic disease, common among the elderly such as dementia, which affects significantly both the sick individual and their caregiver. The impairment of communication since the early stage of dementia may cause negative impact on the old people with dementia and their caregivers. The reviewed studies that evaluated the relationship between communicative inabilities of elderly people with dementia and the burden of their caregivers did so indirectly. There was, among the studies reviewed, none that examine the correlation between these disabilities and quality of life of caregivers. Objectives: 1) To verify the impact of functional communicative inabilities of old people with dementia on the burden and quality of life of their primary caregivers. 2) To verify the association between these inabilities and behavior disorders in old people with dementia, and, so, between this behavior disorders, burden and quality of life of the caregivers. Methods: This is an observational cross-sectional analytical study in a geriatric public service in Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil. The sample comprised 50 elderly with Alzheimer’s disease isolated or associated to vascular dementia and their primary caregivers, on anticholinergic drugs without neurological and psychiatric disorders that are not commonly associated to dementia, and their primary caregivers (Study Group – SG), and 100 controls (Control Group – CG) – 50 healthy old people (matched for sex, age and literacy) plus 50 people who had close contact with the former. We evaluated the impact of functional communicative inabilities of old people with dementia (Questionnaire Functional Assessment of Communication Skills of the American Speech - ASHA-FACS) on the burden (Caregiver Burden Scale - CBS) and quality of life (World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire - short version - WHOQOL - Bref) of their primary caregivers. We also analyzed the association between these inabilities and behavioral disorders of the old people with dementia in SG, and so, between the former, burden and quality of life of their caregivers, using Spearman correlation (SPSS 17.0). Results: There was a statistically significant correlation between the Social Communication (ASHA-FACS) and Psychological domain of Quality of Life (WHOQoL-Bref), as well as between Communication of Basic Needs, the Independence Communicative Index (ASHA-FACS) and "Depression and Dysphoria" of Neuro-Psychiatric Inventory. This, in turn, correlated with the “total index” of Burden (CBS). Conclusions: The functional inability of social communication of old people with dementia proved to have a psychological impact on the quality of life of their caregivers. There was probably an indirect association between the communication inabilities in dementia and the burden of the caregivers, mediated by the behavior disorders in the old people with dementia.