Financial difficulties and well-being among caregivers of persons with severe dementia

Abstract

Objectives: We assessed the association between caregivers’ financial difficulties and the well-being of caregivers among persons with severe dementia (PwSD). We also examined whether caregivers’ use of emotion-focused coping strategies and their ability to derive greater gains from caregiving moderated these associations. Method: Data were drawn from a prospective cohort study of 215 caregivers of community dwelling PwSDs in Singapore, surveyed every four months over three years. We assessed caregiver well-being using measures of caregiver psychological distress, self-rated health status and their perception of PwSDs’ well-being. We estimated separate linear mixed effects models for each outcome variable. Results: A higher financial difficulty score was associated with greater caregiver distress (B = 0.96, p = 0.00), lower self-rated health (B = −0.10, p = 0.00) and poorer PwSD quality of life (B = 0.32, p = 0.01). We also found that greater use of emotion-focused coping and deriving greater gains in caregiving mitigated the negative association between caregiver financial difficulty and their distress and perception of PwSDs’ well-being. Conclusion: Greater financial support and interventions to promote the use of emotion-focused coping strategies and enhancing caregiving gains may have beneficial effects in protecting caregivers’ well-being.