Resentment in The Primary Caregiver of A Patient with Dementia in A Mexican Community

Abstract

Introduction: Dementia is defined as the progressive deterioration of cognitive abilities; It begins with progressive memory loss, progressing to total cognitive limitation, with behavioral-psychiatric and functional compromise. Due to deterioration, a caregiver is essential. Reactions to caring can vary considerably, but it is now clear that many caregivers are at risk of psychosocial compromise. Resentment is defined as a persistent feeling of disgust or anger towards someone because they consider it the cause of a certain offense or damage suffered. Objective: Demonstrate the prevalence of resentment in caregivers of patients with dementia. Material and methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in 147 primary caregivers of patients with dementia who attended a university hospital. Probability sampling for convenience to people over 18 years of age. Approved by the Institution's Ethics and Research Committees. The resentment scale of Thompson et al. Was applied, with Cronbach's alpha .92. Data analysis: It was done in SPSS version 20 for Windows. Chi2 was used for categorical variables with a value of p <0.05. Results: A prevalence of resentment was found in about half of the caregivers. Mostly women, married, university educated, dedicated to the home, of medium socioeconomic level, Catholics, practitioners of their religion, who mainly take care of their mother, 7 days a week with an average of 15 hours a day. Conclusions: About half of the caregivers are resentful. There are factors that are related in favor of the presence of resentment such as occupation and activities related to care and some factors that work against such as attending support groups and being a religious practitioner.