Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019;47(1-2):42-54.
doi: 10.1159/000495345. Epub 2019 Jan 10.

Evaluating Patient Brain and Behavior Pathways to Caregiver Health in Neurodegenerative Diseases

Alice Y Hua  1 , Jenna L Wells  1 , Claudia M Haase  2 , Kuan-Hua Chen  1 , Howard J Rosen  3 , Bruce L Miller  3 , Robert W Levenson  4
Affiliations

Evaluating Patient Brain and Behavior Pathways to Caregiver Health in Neurodegenerative Diseases

Alice Y Hua et al. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2019.

Abstract

Background: Caregivers of patients with neurodegenerative diseases are at heightened risk for serious health problems, but health differences between individual caregivers abound.

Aims: To determine whether atrophy in patient brains could be used to identify caregivers at heightened risk for health problems and which patient variables mediate this relationship.

Methods: In 162 patient-caregiver dyads, we assessed patient atrophy using structural MRI, caregiver health, and patient behavior and cognitive symptoms.

Results: Patient atrophy in the right insula and medial frontal gyrus was associated with worse caregiver health; this relationship was partially mediated by patient neuropsychiatric symptoms, and assessing atrophy in these regions improved predictions of poor caregiver health above and beyond patient behavioral symptoms.

Conclusions: This study shows the value of patients' brain data in identifying caregivers at risk for becoming sick themselves.

Keywords: Caregiver health; Neurodegenerative disease; Patient behavioral symptoms; Patient cognitive symptoms; Voxel-based morphometry.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure Statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Consistent neural correlates of worse caregiver health. T-score maps of brain areas for which a smaller volume in patient and healthy control brains is associated with greater severity of caregiver psychopathological symptoms and worse caregiver global health (p < 0.005, uncorrected). The T-score maps overlap in the right ventral anterior insula and in the superior medial frontal gyrus. The results for all analyses are overlaid on an MNI template brain.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Behavioral symptoms as a mediator. Regression coefficients and standard error (SE) for the relationship between patient brain volumes (right ventral anterior insula and superior medial frontal gyrus) and caregiver psychopathology as mediated by patient behavioral symptoms on the Neuropsychiatric Inventory. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization. WHO | Dementia [Internet]. Geneva: WHO; 2017. [cited 2017 Aug 25]. Available from: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs362/en/.
    1. Brodaty H, Donkin M. Family caregivers of people with dementia. Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2009; 11(2): 217–28. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ory MG, Hoffman RR 3rd, Yee JL, Tennstedt S, Schulz R. Prevalence and impact of caregiving: a detailed comparison between dementia and nondementia caregivers. Gerontologist. 1999. Apr; 39(2): 177–85. - PubMed
    1. Gaugler JE, Kane RL, Newcomer R. Resilience and transitions from dementia caregiving. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2007. January; 62(1): 38–44. - PubMed
    1. Schulz R, O’Brien AT, Bookwala J, Fleissner K. Psychiatric and physical morbidity effects of dementia caregiving: prevalence, correlates, and causes. Gerontologist. 1995. December; 35(6): 771–91. - PubMed

Publication types