American Journal of Alzheimer´s Disease & Other Dementias 2013

Abstract: Estimated that in year 2025, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, that 57 million people of 60 years or older with develop Alzheimers Disease or other Dementias, in comparison with the present statistics. This is partly due to the increasing life expectancy for both sexes in Latin America, that has increased beyond 60 years: of 51.8 to 73.4 years (Latin American and Caribbean Center of Demography, 2008). On the other hand, one has been that the Dementia Alzheimer type is the cause most common of Dementia in Latin America and that because of the symptoms of this pathology, a great number of responsibilities falls on the familiar caretakers of people with Dementia with the aggravating one of which these cares are not remunerated (Nitrini ET to., 2009) and are realized by women or housewives 85% of the time. It has been demonstrated that it enters the caretakers of adults majors with different types from medical conditions, the people who take care of a person with Dementia experience some of the most adverse results of mental and physical health (Pinquart and Sörensen, 2003). The doctors often undergo restrictions in activities outside the cares, that have been related to the increase of the stress of the caretaker, greater depression, symptoms of anxiety, poor physical health, incapacity to surpass anxiety states; psychological aspects also have been affected in the caretakers, between most common: problems of memory and difficulty to concentrate, smaller interest to realize activities, increase or diminution of the appetite, abrupt alterations in the dream, changes in humor (irritability, euphoria, sadness) and the communication, fatigue, isolation, feelings of fault, sedative ingestion or spirits and development of serious or incapacitantes diseases like problems of cancer. The mental health of the caretakers of people with Dementia is especially important to study because the investigation has demonstrated that the mental health of the caretaker improves when it is associated with less time spent to the cares, less problems of conduct in the person with Dementia and the increase of the quality in the informal attention (Markowitz, Gutterman, Sadik, and Papadopoulos, Covinsky ET to., 2003).

American Journal of Alzheimer´s Disease & Other Dementias 2013

Abstract: Research identified there are unique cultural factors contributing to Dementia caregiving in Latin America but very few to caregiver interventions have been yet systematically piloted and evaluated in this region. The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of a group cognitive-behavioral intervention in improving the mental health of Dementia caregivers from Cali, Colombia. Cognitive-behavioral sixty-nine caregivers of individuals with Dementia were randomly assigned to the intervention or an educational control condition, both spanning 8 weeks. Compared to controls, the treatment group showed a higher satisfaction with life and lower depression and burden over the post test and 3-month follow-UPS although there was not effect of the condition on participants' stress levels.

American Journal of Alzheimer´s Disease & Other Dementias, September 25th, 2013

Abstract: Research in Caucasian populations to examine the broad associations between physical and mental health in Dementia caregivers. However, the examination of this relationship in Latin America is largely absent from the literature despite the fact that the region will see a major increase in Dementia from marriage over the next 20 years. The current study examined the associations between health-related quality of life and mental health in 90 Dementia caregivers from Colombia, South America. The canonical correlation found that the higher caregiver HRQOL was related to better mental health, as expected. Physical Caregivers with high vitality and low role limitations due to problems have low depression and high satisfaction with life. Multiple Follow-up regressions found that caregiver role limitations due to physical problems was uniquely associated with satisfaction with life, whereas vitality, role limitations due to physical problems, and pain were uniquely associated with burden (although the pain effect was likely error due to suppressor effect). Additionally, social vitality and functioning were uniquely negatively related to depression necause of the extremely high overlap between these two sets of variable, Dementia interventions plots needed in Latin America that target both the caregiver mental and physical health, and both likely operates in unison and to you influence each other.