20 Aug Mental and Physical Health Issues Common In Caregivers of Stroke Survivors
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Josefine Persson Doctoral student
Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology
Sahlgrenska Academy
University of Gothenburg
Medical Research: What is the background for this study?
Response: Stroke is a major global disease that requires extensive care and support from the society and the family. We know from previous research that a stroke often has a wide-spread impact on the daily life of the family. To provide support to a partner is often perceived as natural and important, but can be demanding and have an impact on the spouses own health. The situation for spouses as caregivers is well studied during the first two years after the stroke, while the long-term effects are less well known. By this, we studied the physical and mental health of 248 spouses of stroke survivors, below age 70 at stroke onset, seven years after the stroke event and compared our result with 245 spouses of non-stroke, age- and sex-matched controls.
Medical Research: What are the main findings?
Response: The main finding of our study is that caregiver spouses of stroke survivors are at an increased risk of mental and physical health issues even seven years after stroke onset. This is the first study with this long period of follow up and the results show that the restriction on the spouses own activity and social relationships studied in shorter follow up is also obvious for a large proportion of the spouses in a very long perspective. Spouses’ quality of life was most adversely affected by their partners’ level of disability, cognitive difficulties and depressive symptoms.
Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Response: The findings of this study suggest the importance for long-lasting, target societal support to the spouses to prevent or reduce the burden, perceived stress and strain which might contribute to health benefits, strength to fulfil goals in work and education reduced risk of disease. In addition, our study indicates that the level of depression and level of disability of the stroke survivor is associated with the spouses’ physical and mental health, which strengthens the need for adequate workarounds for rehabilitation and follow-up including spouses.
Furthermore, our results also show that the spouses of stroke survivors reported lower general health than the spouses of controls, which might be due to perceived stress or strain for a long period, or due to shared lifestyle factors. Hence, it is important for the society to provide support to prevent or reduce the burden on spouses and health promotion to prevent unhealthy lifestyle. A societal effort could be aimed to reduce the burden on spouses and to provide health promotion against an unhealthy lifestyle.
Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Response: The spouses who are at risk are those who experience a supporting role towards the stroke survivors, especially if the spouses have experienced lack of social support. Further research is needed to explore the demanding situation for the supporting spouses and to investigate the quantity of time spent on providing support as well as which components it contains. A key question is to understand how the caregiver role impacts the spouses own health and how information and support can positively affect their own health and cohabitation.
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Last Updated on August 20, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD