Effects of social support and coping of family caregivers of elders with dementia in Taiwan

As the number of elders increases so does the number of individuals facing chronic or serious illness, or disabling conditions requiring long term care. Dementia is one of the common chronic diseases experienced by the elderly population. Family caregivers providing a major portion of caregiving often experience stress and deleterious consequences to their physical and mental health. In Taiwan, filial responsibility is a true value of Chinese culture so that most caregivers prefer caring for dependent elders by themselves. About eighty percent of elders are cared for by their family members and two thirds of such dependent elders live with caregivers.; The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of demographic (age, gender, and income), situational factors (caregiving duration, caregiver-care recipient relationship, care recipient's behavioral problems, and paid-in-home assistants), social support, and coping on the health outcomes (depressive symptoms and general health perceptions) of family caregivers of elders with dementia in Taiwan. This study also examined stress and whether social support moderated and coping mediated the relationship between stress and caregiver's health. Lazarus and Folkman's Stress model guided this study.; The model based, descriptive cross-sectional study included subjects who were primary family caregivers of elders with dementia from two settings in southern Taiwan. A convenience sample of 148 participants were interviewed and completed a demographic information sheet, the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale, and the General Health Perceptions subscale of the Short Form 36-Health Survey, the Care Recipient Behavioral Problems checklist, the Revised Ways of Coping scale, and the Inventory of Social Supportive Behaviors scale. Data analysis consisted of Pearson's correlations, simple linear, and multiple regression analysis. The findings indicated that younger caregivers, with paid-in-home assistants, and longer caregiving duration had better health. Females, those with less income, and those without paid-in-home assistants had more depressive symptoms. In addition, a mediating effect for avoidance coping and three moderating effects by tangible help and informational support were supported in this study. The results from this study provided a basis for nurses to develop interventions to minimize the negative impact of caregiving on family caregivers.