Depression, anxiety, and stress among some elderly caregivers in Alexandria city, Egypt

Abstract

Background: Caregiving is extremely stressful task. Thus, Caregivers are sometimes at greater health risk than the care receivers, tend to develop negative health behaviors, and suffer from physical and psychological disorders. Objective: The objective of the study was to assess depression, anxiety, and stress among elderly caregivers in Alexandria and to compare psychological impact on formal against informal elderly caregivers. Materials and Methods: A comparative cross-sectional survey was conducted among 276 formal caregivers working at 12 elders’ care institutions and 183 randomly selected informal elderly caregivers in Alexandria governorate, Egypt. An interview anonymous questionnaire was utilized to collect data from caregivers about personal characteristics, occupational history, and psychological condition using Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) to detect depression, anxiety, and stress among them. Results: The results revealed that higher percentage of the studied formal caregivers experienced depression (45.7%) and anxiety (46.7%) as compared to the informal group (33.9% for both). Meanwhile, the majority of the informal caregivers (75.4%) suffered from stress compared to 48.9% of the formal caregivers, (P < 0.0001). Totally, the informal group experienced higher levels of psychological burden (P = 0.029). Receiving unsatisfactory income and serving elders suffering from Alzheimer and/or dementia were the predictors for a higher DASS score among formal caregivers. Meanwhile, the predictors among the informal caregivers were being a female of younger age and caring for a higher number of elders. Conclusion: The study revealed that caregiving has a negative psychological impact on both formal and informal caregivers with statistically significantly higher level on informal ones.