Hostname: page-component-669899f699-cf6xr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-04T06:40:09.343Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Attitudes to aging in older carers – do they have a role in their well-being?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2015

Samantha M. Loi ,
Briony Dow ,
Kirsten Moore ,
Keith Hill ,
Melissa Russell ,
Elizabeth Cyarto ,
Sue Malta ,
David Ames  and
Nicola T. Lautenschlager
Samantha M. Loi*
Affiliation:
Academic Unit for Psychiatry of Old Age, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Normanby House, St George's Hospital, 283 Cotham Road, Kew, Victoria 3101, Australia National Ageing Research Institute, 34–54 Poplar Road, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Unit, Melbourne Health, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, 300 Grattan Street, Parkville, Victoria 3050, Australia
Briony Dow
Affiliation:
National Ageing Research Institute, 34–54 Poplar Road, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia
Kirsten Moore
Affiliation:
National Ageing Research Institute, 34–54 Poplar Road, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia
Keith Hill
Affiliation:
School of Physiotherapy and Exercise Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia 6845, Australia
Melissa Russell
Affiliation:
Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Level 3, 207 Bouverie Street, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
Elizabeth Cyarto
Affiliation:
National Ageing Research Institute, 34–54 Poplar Road, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia
Sue Malta
Affiliation:
National Ageing Research Institute, 34–54 Poplar Road, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia Swinburne Institute of Social Research, Swinburne University, John Street, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia
David Ames
Affiliation:
National Ageing Research Institute, 34–54 Poplar Road, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia
Nicola T. Lautenschlager
Affiliation:
Academic Unit for Psychiatry of Age, St. Vincent's Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences & WA Centre for Health and Ageing, University of Western Australia
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Samantha M. Loi, Academic Unit for Psychiatry of Old Age, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Normanby House, St George's Hospital, 283 Cotham Road, Kew, Victoria 3101, Australia. Phone: +61 3 9231 8485; Fax: +61 3 9231 8477. Email: [email protected].
Get access

Abstract

Background:

Attitudes to aging have been investigated in non-carer populations and found to have important relationships with physical and mental health. However, these have not been explored in an older carer sample, although it is becoming increasingly important to clarify variables which are linked with positive carer outcomes. This is one of the first studies to report on older carers, their attitudes to aging, and the relationship with carer-related factors.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study of 202 carers with a mean age of 70.8 years was conducted in Victoria, Australia, using carer demographic data, carer factors such as depression (using the Geriatric Depression Scale), burden (using the Zarit Burden Inventory, ZBI), physical health, personality, and attitudes to aging (using the Attitudes to Aging Questionnaire, AAQ). Spearman rank correlation and hierarchical regression analyses were used.

Results:

This study showed that carers had overall positive attitudes to aging inspite of their caring role. It also identified that carer factors including depression and burden contributed a significant amount of the variance to attitudes to aging in terms of physical change and psychosocial loss. Personality traits, specifically neuroticism, and extraversion, were also important contributors to attitudes to aging.

Conclusions:

Results from this study demonstrated that inspite of moderate levels of depression and spending significant time caring, carers reported positive attitudes to aging. Treating depression, decreasing burden, and investigating the benefits of caring may assist older carers maintain their well-being.

Keywords

attitudes to agingolder carersdepressionpersonalityburden
Type
Research Article
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 27 , Issue 11 , November 2015 , pp. 1893 - 1901
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Almeida, O.P. and Almeida, S. A. (1999). Short versions of the geriatric depression scale: a study of their validity for the diagnosis of a major depressive episode according to ICD-10 and DSM-IV. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 14, 858–65.3.0.CO;2-8>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andren, S. and Elmstahl, S. (2005). Family caregivers’ subjective experiences of satisfaction in dementia care: aspects of burden, subjective health and sense of coherence. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 19, 157–68.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2012). Australian Social Trends - Older carers [Online]. Available at: http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/Lookup/4102.0Main+Features40Dec+2012; last accessed 2013 26/1/2013.Google Scholar
Baumgarten, M. , et al. (1992). The psychological and physical health of family members caring for an elderly person with dementia. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 45, 61–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bryant, C. , et al. (2012). The relationship between attitudes to aging and physical and mental health in older adults. International Psychogeriatrics, 24, 1674–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bryant, C., et al. (2014). Antecedents of attitudes to aging: a study of the roles of personality and well-being. Gerontologist, doi: 10.1093/geront/gnu041.Google Scholar
Chachamovich, E., Fleck, M., Laidlaw, K. and Power, M. (2008). Impact of major depression and subsyndromal symptoms on quality of life and attitudes toward aging in an international sample of older adults. The Gerontologist, 48, 593–602.Google Scholar
Clyburn, L. D., Stones, M. J., Hadjistavropoulos, T. and Tuokko, H. (2000). Predicting caregiver burden and depression in Alzheimer's disease. Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 55, S2–13.Google Scholar
Cohen, J. (1992). A power primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 155–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Costa, P. T. and McCrae, R. R. (2010). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI): Professional Manual, Florida: Psychological Assessment Resources Inc. Google Scholar
Courts, N. F., Barba, R. E. and Tesh, A. (2001). Family caregivers’ attitudes toward aging, caregiving, and nursing home placement. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 27, 44–52.Google Scholar
Dahlberg, L., Demack, S. and Bambra, C. (2007). Age and gender of informal carers: a population-based study in the UK. Health and Social Care in the Community, 15, 439–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dow, B., et al. (2013). Improving mood through physical activity for carers and care recipients (IMPACCT): protocol for a randomised trial. Journal of Physiotherapy, 59, 125.Google Scholar
Gallagher, D., et al. (2011). Self-efficacy for managing dementia may protect against burden and depression in Alzheimer's caregivers. Aging and Mental Health, 15, 663–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hebert, M., Bravo, G. and Preville, M. (2000). Reliability, validity and reference values of the Zarit Burden inventory for assessing informal caregivers of community-dwelling older persons with dementia. Canadian Journal on Aging, 19, 494–507.Google Scholar
Helmes, E., Green, B. and Almeida, O. (2005). Individual differences in the experience of burden in caring for relatives with dementia: role of personality and mastery. Australasian Journal of Ageing, 24, 202–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinkle, D. E., Wiersma, W. and Jurs, S. G. (2003). Applied Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, 5th edn, Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Huy, C., Schneider, S. and Thiel, A. (2010). Perceptions of aging and health behaviour: determinants of a healthy diet in an older German population. The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging, 14, 381–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jang, Y., Kim, G. and Chiriboga, D. A. (2006). Health perception and depressive symptoms among older Korean Americans. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 21, 91–102.Google Scholar
Kunzmann, U., Little, T. D. and Smith, J. (2000). Is age-related stability of subjective well-being a paradox? Cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence from the Berlin aging study. Psychology and Aging, 15, 511–26.Google Scholar
Laidlaw, K. and Baikie, E. (2007a). Psychotherapy and demographic change. Why psychotherapists working with older adults need to be aware of changing demographics now. Nordic Psychology, 59, 45–58.Google Scholar
Laidlaw, K., Power, M. J. and Schmidt, S. (2007b). The attitudes to ageing questionnaire (AAQ): development and psychometric properties. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 22, 367–79.Google Scholar
Law, J., Laidlaw, K. and Peck, D. (2010). Is depression viewed as an inevitable consequence of age? The “understandability phenomenon” in older people. Clinical Gerontologist, 33, 194–209.Google Scholar
Levy, B. R. (2003). Mind matters: cognitive and physical effects of aging self-stereotypes. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 58, P203–11.Google Scholar
Levy, B. R., Hausdorff, J. M., Hencke, R. and Wei, J. Y. (2000). Reducing cardiovascular stress with positive self-stereotypes of aging. Journal of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 55, P205–13.Google Scholar
Levy, B. R. and Myers, L. M. (2004). Preventive health behaviors influenced by self-perceptions of aging. Preventive Medicine, 39, 625–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lucas-Carrasco, R., Laidlaw, K., Gomez-Benito, J. and Power, M. J. (2013). Reliability and validity of the attitudes to ageing questionnaire (AAQ) in older people in Spain. International Psychogeriatrics, 25, 490–499.Google Scholar
Moor, C., Zimprich, D., Schmitt, M. and Kliegel, M. (2006). Personality, aging self-perceptions, and subjective health: a mediation model. International Journal Aging Human Development, 63, 241–57.Google Scholar
Neri, A. L., et al. (2012). Relationships between gender, age, family conditions, physical and mental health, and social isolation of elderly caregivers. International Psychogeriatrics, 24, 472–83.Google Scholar
Pinquart, M. and Sorensen, S. (2007). Correlates of physical health of informal caregivers: a meta-analysis. Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 62, P126–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reis, M. F., Gold, D. P., Andres, D. and Markiewicz, D. (1994). Personality traits as determinants of burden and health complaints in caregiving. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 39, 257–271.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shenkin, S. D., et al. (2014). Life course influences of physical and cognitive function and personality on attitudes to aging in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936. International Psychogeriatrics, 13, 1–14.Google Scholar
Yesavage, J., et al. (1983). Development and validation of a geriatric depression screening scale: a preliminary report. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 17, 37–49.Google Scholar
Zarit, S. H., Reever, K. E. and Bach-Peterson, J. (1980). Relatives of the impaired elderly: correlates of feelings of burden. Gerontologist, 20, 649–55.Google Scholar