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 These caregiver spouses are at an increased risk of mental and
physical health issues even seven years after their care recipient’s
stroke, said lead author Josefine Persson, a Ph.D. candidate at
Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
“The spouses of stroke survivors reported lower general health than
the spouses of (a comparison group), which might be due to perceived
stress or strain for a long period, or due to shared lifestyle
factors,” Persson told Reuters Health by email.
Society, she said, should "provide support to reduce the burden on
spouses and health promotion to prevent unhealthy lifestyles.”
Her team followed 248 stroke survivors under age 70 and their
spouses for seven years and compared them to 245 similar couples
without a stroke. The spouses' average age was roughly 65 years;
about two-thirds were women.
At the end of the study, compared to spouses in the non-stroke
group, the stroke survivors' spouses scored lower on all general
health and mental health domains of a 36-item health related quality
of life questionnaire. They also scored lower for their physical
role in the home.
As the stroke survivors’ levels of disability, cognitive ability,
and depressive symptoms increased, the caregiving spouses’ quality
of life scores tended to decrease, the authors reported in the
journal Stroke.
Supporting a partner is often perceived as natural and important but
can be demanding and have an impact on the spouse’s own health,
Persson said.
The chronic stress of providing informal care to a loved one can be
associated with increases in stress hormones and inflammation, which
may raise the risk of depression and inflammatory diseases like
cardiovascular disease, according to Karen L. Saban of Loyola
University Chicago in Illinois, who was not part of the new study.
Some people may be more vulnerable to the chronic stress of
caregiving, she told Reuters Health by email.
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“For example, caregivers with good social support may be at lower
risk of experiencing the effects of chronic stress,” Saban said.
“The resources available for caregivers of stroke survivors vary in
different countries depending on welfare and health care systems,”
Persson said.
Since society greatly depends on informal caregivers, “it is
imperative that we ‘care for the caregiver,’” potentially with
routine screening for depressive symptoms and symptoms associated
with chronic stress, Saban said. Those at high risk can then be
referred to support groups or respite care programs to help reduce
their stress, she said.
“Receiving knowledge about stroke and about how to handle the
consequences of the stroke in everyday life is important as a base
for caregivers’ coping ability,” Persson said. “It´s also important
that society and health care are knowledgeable about caregivers’
situation and risk of decreased well-being even after an apparently
mild stroke.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1PwWUeT Stroke, online August 20, 2015.
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