As the number of elderly increases due to population aging, the prevalence of chronic degenerative diseases increases significantly. Among these, dementia becomes a risk factor for disability and functional loss and may promote a relationship of increased assistance in daily activities / occupations of the elderly and changes in the daily context of the caregiver. This paper aims to grasp the perception of caregivers of elderly in process of dementia regarding their daily lives, by identifying the status of their occupations / activities arising from care relationships. It is a cross-sectional study, of correlational comparison with quantitative approach. To this end, we selected a sample of 22 caregivers of older adults diagnosed with dementia, six formal caregivers and 16 informal caregivers. For data collection, a list of occupations and a questionnaire to describe caregivers was used. The data showed that informal caregivers devote more time to care activities, with abandonment of several productive daily activities, leisure and personal care activity after taking care. Formal caregivers in these impacts are much smaller, since the activity carefully composes their working life. In both groups, there was a low number of caregivers who are trained for the activity and they reported feeling difficulties in handling and guiding families in care management for the elderly. According to the data obtained in this study and based on the existing literature, the informal caregivers are the primary caregivers and are characterized by having their daily activities amended or replaced by the responsibility of care.
Dementia; Caregivers; Elderly; Activities of Daily Living