Carers taking primary responsibility for people with dementia are more likely to suffer symptoms of ill health than the general population, a Curtin University study has found.<\/p>\n
The feasibility study, which involved carers of people with cognitive impairment, revealed caregivers were more prone to suffering from a range of health issues, particularly insomnia, fatigue and pain.<\/p>\n
The study also found a gap between reported health issues experienced by carers and their own perception of their wellbeing.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf the carers who completed an end-of-study questionnaire, half exhibited a moderate-to-severe health-related burden or a severe burden as a result of their caring responsibilities,\u201d the study\u2019s lead author, Associate Professor Barbara Horner, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe issues reported included fatigue, sleeplessness and pain as the most common ailments, but also nausea, shortness of breath, appetite loss and financial problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the fact that more than 250,000 Australians currently live with dementia and the figure is estimated to double by 2030, it\u2019s a concern that carers showed lower overall health status than the general population, and this puts them at risk of dying early.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carers involved in the study were encouraged to visit their doctor within four weeks of completing the questionnaire.<\/p>\n
As part of the research, the doctors were provided with a GP toolkit designed to reflect the specific needs of carers for people with dementia \u2013 including a list of support services and resources and guidelines for discussing end-of-life issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cResults from the research show that carers of people with cognitive impairment have unmet health needs and may not seek, or delay seeking, appropriate healthcare,\u201d Associate Professor Horner said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was also noted that carers were unwilling to discuss their needs with a GP when the reason for the visit was primarily to address the needs of the person they cared for.\u201d<\/p>\n
The researchers will now commence a further study that seeks to better understand the experience of caring with an aim to provide better education, support and primary care for someone who is in this critical role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carers taking primary responsibility for people with dementia are more likely to suffer symptoms of ill health than the general population, a Curtin University study has found.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-18171","media-release","type-media-release","status-publish","hentry","category-research"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"Media contact","content":"
Susanna Wolz,\u00a0Public Relations Consultant, Health Sciences,\u00a0Curtin University
\nTel: +61 8 9266 9085
\nEmail: Susanna.Wolz@curtin.edu.au<\/a>
\nTwitter: @CurtinPR<\/a><\/p>\n","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":{"title":"Susanna Wolz","url":"#","target":""},"photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":false,"author_meta":{"first_name":"Curtin","last_name":"University","display_name":"Curtin University"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/18171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/media-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/18171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18171"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=18171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}