Relationship between stress and coping strategies of caregivers of elderly people with Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract

This cross-sectional study aimed to identify the relationship between stress and coping strategies of 126 caregivers of elderly people with Alzheimer's Disease. A questionnaire was used to evaluate the sociodemographic, health and care profile of the elderly, the Perceived Stress Scale and the Ways of Coping with Problems Scale. Data analysis was performed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, asymmetry and kurtosis coefficients, bootstrapping procedures, Pearson correlation, multiple linear regression, independent student's t-test, One-Way Anova and Tukey's Post-Hoc (p < 0.05). It was found that stress presented a significant (p < 0.05), moderate and negative correlation with the problem-focused coping strategy, in addition to a positive and moderate correlation with the emotion-focused strategy. Coping strategies focused on the problem (β = -0.54; p < 0.001) and emotion (β = 0.33; p < 0.001) presented a significant prediction on the caregivers' perception of stress. From the results obtained, it can be concluded that the problem-focused strategy appears to contribute to reducing caregivers' perception of stress, while the emotion-focused strategy appears to contribute positively to stress.