Association Between Caregivers' Burden and Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Female Patients with Alzheimer's Disease with Varying Dementia Severity

Yu-An Chen; Cheng-Chen Chang; Wen-Fu Wang; Ya-Sian Lin; Kai-Ming Jhang; Tzu-Ying Lo; Hsin-Hung Wu

doi:10.2147/JMDH.S298196

Association Between Caregivers' Burden and Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Female Patients with Alzheimer's Disease with Varying Dementia Severity

J Multidiscip Healthc. 2021 Apr 28:14:929-940. doi: 10.2147/JMDH.S298196. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Yu-An Chen^#¹, Cheng-Chen Chang^#^{1

2}, Wen-Fu Wang^#^{3

4}, Ya-Sian Lin⁵, Kai-Ming Jhang³, Tzu-Ying Lo⁵, Hsin-Hung Wu^{5

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan.
² School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung City, Taiwan.
³ Department of Neurology, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Holistic Wellness, Ming Dao University, Changhua, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Business Administration, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of M-Commerce and Multimedia Applications, Asia University, Taichung City, Taiwan.
⁷ Faculty of Education, State University of Malang, Malang, East Java, Indonesia.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Purpose: This study examined the attributes causing higher burdens for caregivers caring for female patients with Alzheimer's disease by analyzing a combination of various variables, including demographic data, dementia severity, and neuropsychiatric symptoms.

Patients and methods: This study included 99 female patients with Alzheimer's disease who were cared for by the dementia collaborative care team at Changhua Christian Hospital, Taiwan. Neuropsychiatric symptoms used in this study included affections (9 types), behavior symptoms (9 symptoms), and psychological symptoms (3 symptoms). The Apriori algorithm was employed to identify association rules that reveal the relationships among demographic data, dementia severity, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and caregivers' burden.

Results: A total of 185 rules were determined, including 51 rules with little or no burden, 108 rules with mild to moderate burden, and 26 rules with moderate to severe burden. The major findings are as follows. Neuropsychiatric symptoms were associated with varying degrees of caregivers' burden among female patients aged 75 to 84 years with mild dementia. Crying spells and aggression were specifically associated with a moderate to severe burden. Delusion was associated with a mild to moderate and moderate to severe burden. Dysthymia and depression were associated with little or no burden to moderate to severe burden.

Conclusion: Clinicians can provide early interventions to reduce the burden of caregivers caring for female patients with Alzheimer's disease and can refer caregivers for timely assistance to reduce their burden.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Apriori algorithm; caregiving burden; female patients; female patients with Alzheimer’s disease; neuropsychiatric symptom.