Stressors identified by caregivers for veterans with Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

Nurses assume that they know the stressors of Parkinson’s disease (PD) caregivers but a scarcity of research findings exists. This study was designed to identify those needs and stressors for the purposes of improving support and developing caregiver educational and interventional programs.

Caregivers were recruited from a database of 756 U.S. veterans with PD. A caregiver questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of 300 subjects. Non-parametric statistics were used to interpret caregiver characteristics and variable correlations. A logistic regression model provided insight into factors influencing stress.

One hundred and fifteen caregivers participated (38.3% response). Their mean age was 66.6 years. Eighty-four percent had been a caregiver between 3-20 years, and 50 percent estimated a PD disease severity above 7 (0-10 scale).

We learned that as PD progresses in severity and requires more physical and emotional support, nurses need to attend to caregivers’ increased stressors and quality of life.