Mental Health in Rural Caregivers of Persons With Dementia

Informal caregiving for dementia is common and often affectscaregiver mental health. In addition to typical stressors faced by caregivers of personswith dementia (PWDs), rural caregivers often face additional stressors associated withliving in more remote locations; unfortunately, this group is largely understudied.Ninety-three caregiver–PWD dyads completed measures of social support, perceivedcontrol, self-efficacy, burden, and cognitive functioning. Measures of PWD activities ofdaily living and mental functioning were also collected. These variables werehypothesized to predict caregiver self-reported symptoms of depression, anxiety, andstress. Contrary to predictions, only caregiving-related self-efficacy and caregiverburden predicted the caregiver’s mental health. Future interventions for improving ruralcaregiver self-reported mental health should target cognitions associated withcaregiving self-efficacy and caregiver burden. Health care providers for rural familiesshould focus on ways to reduce feelings of caregiver burden and provide caregivers withuseful skills and tools for caregiving