COVID-19 Pandemic and Caregiving of Old Adults with Chronic Nervous System Disease

The COVID-19 pandemic and the concomitant quarantine have significantly reduced old adults’ independence in doing daily or functional activities. Thus, they require more support and help at home. Because of the effect of the disease’s progression and the adverse effects of quarantine on patients’ functional status, old adults’ caregivers might have been affected too.

The present research aimed to explore the role of the caregiving burden in the relationship between old adults’ functional status and caregivers’ mental health.

The research population comprised caregiver families of old adults afflicted with chronic nervous diseases during the pandemic. To this aim, a sample of 249 caregiver families of old adults suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, or stroke participated in this study. Data were collected using three online questionnaires of Lawton’s instrumental activities of daily living scale (IADL), Novak’s caregiver burden inventory, and Goldberg’s mental health questionnaire. Data analysis was administered by Pearson’s correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling (SEM).

Correlation analysis and SEM results showed that the patients’ functional status and caregivers’ mental health had a significant, positive correlation, which was mediated by the caregiving burden variable.

It can be concluded that better functional status of old adults can lead to a lower caregiving burden. Also, it can significantly improve caregivers’ mental health and increase the old adults’ and caregivers’ quality of life.