Depression among caregivers of the disabled elderly in southern Japan

The present study was conducted in an attempt to investigate factors related to depression of caregivers who looked after the disabled elderly residing in a community in southern Japan. A questionnaire survey was carried out of 45 pairs of caregivers and the disabled elderly who received regular visits from a practice nurse, who was located in Onga County, Fukuoka, in southern Japan. Twenty-four out of 45 caregivers (53.3%) scored above the conventional cut-off of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). The proportion of children-in-law caregivers was significantly smaller (0% vs. 23.8%, P = 0.01) and the proportion of caregivers who had consulted a physician within 1 month prior to the study was greater in the depressed than that in the non-depressed (79.2% vs. 47.6%, P = 0.03). The elderly whose caregivers were depressed (group 1) had more behavioural disturbances than those of the non-depressed caregivers (group 2) (1.92+/-2.38 vs. 0.52+/-0.87, P = 0.01) A multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that only behavioural disturbance was positively related to depression (Odds ratio: 4.29, 95% confidence interval: 1.28-14.37). More behavioural disturbances led the caregivers to depression or the depressed caregivers failed to take care of the elderly, which resulted in an increase in the number of the behavioural disturbances of the elderly.