Abstract
BACKGROUND:
The task of caring can arise suddenly without guidance or support, resulting in psychological tension and health impairment, which can culminate in the development of frailty.
OBJECTIVE:
To analyze the relationship between frailty and sociodemographic and health aspects related to the care context of older caregivers.
DESIGN AND SETTING:
A cross-sectional study was conducted on 65 older caregivers registered in family health units in the interior of the state of São Paulo.
METHODS:
The participants were interviewed individually using the following instruments: a characterization questionnaire, Fried’s frailty phenotype, Zarit Burden’s Interview, Mini-Mental State Examination, Geriatric Depression Scale, Katz Index, and Lawton Scale. In addition, the following statistical tests were applied: Pearson’s chi-squared test, Fisher’s exact test, and Mann–Whitney test. A significance level of 5% was considered to be statistically significant.
RESULTS:
Women who took care of their spouses predominated without prior training or the help of other people. Most of the patients were pre-frail (72.3%). Frailty was significantly related to marital status (P = 0.016), depressive symptoms (P = 0.029), cognitive decline (P = 0.029), the degree of kinship (P = 0.015), and burden (P = 0.004).
CONCLUSION:
Older caregivers without a partner, with severe depressive symptoms and cognitive changes, who cared for their parents, and had higher levels of burden, presented a higher proportion of frailty.
KEY WORDS (MeSH terms):
Caregivers; Aged; Frailty; Geriatric nursing; Cognition
AUTHORS’ KEY WORDS:
Older adults; Burden; Depressive symptoms; Frail older adult