Caregivers
Conditions
Keywords
biological marker, frailty, burden, nutrition, elderly
Brief summary
Providing care for a disabled elderly may represent a risk for the health of the caregiver. The objective of the study is to assess the impact of caregiving in terms of clinical and biological markers in relation to disability and cognitive impairment.
Detailed description
The investigators hypothesize that an accumulation of stressful events related to care giving may induce a stress response to the caregiver. This stress response can be measured by biological markers (inflammation, transcription and immunity) and also by clinical markers (frailty, physical performance, nutrition). This stress response can be influenced by the subjective burden of the caregiver and by the severity of the disease of the care receiver (Activity of daily life capabilities, cognitive function, behavioral disturbance).
Interventions
OTHERResearch questionnaires, blood sample
assessment of health (frailty, nutrition, physical performance, depression, burden, sense of coherence, caregiver reaction)
Sponsors
University of Liege
University of Namur
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire UCLouvain Namur
Study design
Observational model
CASE_CONTROL
Time perspective
PROSPECTIVE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
70 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* living with the care-receiver ( or with a healthy elderly for the controls) * care-receiver dependent for at least one Activity of the daily living ( Katz index) or having cognitive disorder ( \>2 Global Deterioration Scale)
Exclusion criteria
* institutionalised elderly * inability to understand and speak french * Acute disease within the past month * Anti-inflammatory or immuno-suppressive treatment * End-of-life care
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Levels of biomarkers across groups | at baseline | biomarkers of inflammation (cortisol, high sensitive C-Reactive Protein,Interleukin-6), immunity (TRECS, telomere length) and transcriptomics/epigenetics |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Relation between biomarkers, subjective burden and the care receiver situation | at baseline | biomarkers of inflammation (cortisol, high sensitive C-Reactive Protein,Interleukin-6), immunity (TRECS, telomere length) and transcriptomics/epigenetics and their relations with the Zarit burden, the caregiver reaction assessment, the depression scale and the sense of coherence scale and with the situation of the care receiver ( Katz index, cognitive impairment, behavioral disturbance) |
Other
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| relation between biomarkers at baseline and functional decline | after 12 month | — |
| Relation between biomarkers, subjective burden and the care receiver situation | at baseline | biomarkers of inflammation (cortisol, high sensitive C-Reactive Protein,Interleukin-6), immunity (TRECS, telomere length) and transcriptomics/epigenetics and their relations with the Zarit burden, the caregiver reaction assessment, the depression scale and the sense of coherence scale and with the situation of the care receiver ( Katz index, cognitive impairment, behavioral disturbance) |
| relation between biomarkers at baseline and burden | after 12 month | — |
| Levels of clinical markers across groups | at baseline and after 12 month | frailty, physical performance, nutrition, depression |
| comparison of health events | after 12 month | Institutionalization, increase of formal home help services, hospitalisations |
Countries
Belgium
Contacts
Primary Contactflorence potier, MD
Backup ContactMarie de Saint-Hubert, MD, PhD
Outcome results
None listed