Estilos de cuidado y la implicación como protector psicológico del cuidador de personas con Parkinson en España

Abstract

Carers of people with Parkinson's disease (PD) experience stressful situations as a result of performing their role as caregivers. This can have a negative outcome on their quality of life. A greater understanding of the relationship between the variables assessed in caregivers can be important in implementing effective intervention programs. The aim of this study was to explore the personality and coping strategies used by family caregivers of people with PD, analyzing their relationship with psychological distress and the carer involvement. A cross-sectional study based on a sample of 106 caregivers of people with Parkinson's disease tested the hypothesis that personality and coping strategies can contribute to identifying differences in carer involvement and psychological distress. Caregiver psychological distress was assessed using the CORE-OM questionnaire. The CORE-OM is able to distinguish the population within the clinical and non-clinical range. NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) was used to assess personality. Coping strategies were evaluated with the COPE-28 inventory. An operational measure of the carer involvement was also used. For this purpose, an adaptation of the Katz index assessing basic functional capacity was made. Results: First, all cases were clustered according to personality variables and coping strategies. A K-means cluster analysis was performed and two groups were requested. After this, binary logistic regression analysis was used to test the research hypothesis. The resulting clusters in the above analysis were selected as predictors. Two analyses were performed. In the first, the dependent variable in logistic regression analysis was the psychological distress of the caregivers (dichotomized variable: clinical and non-clinical). Results showed that people clustered within cluster 1 had a 9.250 times higher risk of psychological distress than those included in cluster 2 (OR = 9.250; p < .001). In a second logistic regression analysis, the dependent variable was participation in care (dichotomized variable: low - high carer involvement). The group of people belonging to cluster 1 showed a carer involvement 4.125 times lower than the people grouped in cluster 2 (OR = 4.125; p