Study on influence that working and leisure activities give to mental health in the family caregivers taking care of a home care person.

Research Project

Project/Area Number	22890208
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Community health/Gerontological nurisng
Research Institution	Toho University (2011) Japanese Red Cross College of Nursing (2010)
Principal Investigator	OMIYA Tomoko 東邦大学, 看護学部, 助教 (90589607)
Project Period (FY)	2010 – 2011
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2011)
Budget Amount *help	¥2,353,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,810,000、Indirect Cost: ¥543,000) Fiscal Year 2011: ¥975,000 (Direct Cost: ¥750,000、Indirect Cost: ¥225,000) Fiscal Year 2010: ¥1,378,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,060,000、Indirect Cost: ¥318,000)
Keywords	家族介護者 / 就労 / 余暇活動 / 在宅介護者 / 精神健康 / 介護負担感 / 介護継続 / がん / 認知症
Research Abstract	Focusing on the employment and leisure activities of family caregivers, we conducted a questionnaire survey and interview. First, we interviewed seven family caregivers and performed qualitative analysis. The results showed that once they were aware of "the mental and physical fatigue of role captivity" and "the less time there is to be oneself", they tried to "reduce the psychological bonds and constraints" and with advice and counseling from a health care provider, "trial to have time to put distance from caregiving". When they succeeded, "participating in social activities once more" led to "rebuilding a balance between caregiving and one's personal life". In the questionnaire, the presence of reducing the amount of work and retirement, which the ADL and IADL care associated with the amount of medical treatment, has been found. Resigned from the leisure activities are associated with worse to have a CES-D and increase a sense of care burden has been shown. In particular, it showed a significantly associated with worsening of CES-D is that the experience left the group activities outside the home(association meeting of the neighborhood, hobby, sports)(p<0.05), leave-taking from work for nursing(p<0.05), and bad economic conditions(p<0.05).