Acta Scientific Medical Sciences (ASMS)(ISSN: 2582-0931)

Research Article Volume 7 Issue 10

The Impact of Social Anxiety and Social Phobia on Difficulties in Providing Care for Family Caregivers to People with Dementia

Lídia Maria Ramos Serra*, Daniela Filipa Palma Serpa and Luís Miguel Domingues Ferreira Silva

Department of Psychology, Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, Portugal

*Corresponding Author: Lídia Maria Ramos Serra, Department of Psychology, Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, Portugal.

Received: August 17, 2023; Published: September 28, 2023

Abstract

Objective: The main objective of this study was to examine whether social anxiety and social phobia can predict the difficulties faced by family caregivers in providing care to elderly people with dementia. The study also investigated whether these predictive effects remain consistent when larger samples are obtained through data simulation.

Methods The study involved a sample of 100 family caregivers, primarily women, who had been providing care to people with dementia for an average of 5 years. The instruments used in the study were a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Carers Assessment of Difficulties Index, Social Phobia Scale and Anxiety Scale in Social Interaction Situations.

Results: The findings of the study indicated that both social phobia and social anxiety significantly predicted the difficulties experienced by caregivers in providing care to individuals with dementia. These predictive effects were observed in both the original sample and the simulated samples obtained through data simulation.

Conclusion: The presence of anxiety disorders, specifically social phobia, and social anxiety, can serve as important predictors of the challenges faced by family caregivers in providing care to elderly people with dementia. The researchers suggested that specialized interventions targeting these anxiety disorders could help prevent a deterioration in the quality of care provided to dependent people with dementia.

 Keywords: Dementia; Caregivers; Social Anxiety; Social Phobia; Difficulties in Caregiving

References

  1. World Health Organization. “Cognitive decline and dementia: what can health and social care workers do?”.
  2. Gale SA., et al. “Dementia”. The American Journal of Medicine 10 (2018): 1161-1169.
  3. Nakanishi, K., et al. “Gaps between activities of daily living performance and capacity in people with mild dementia”. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 23 (2022): 15949.
  4. Prizer LP and Zimmerman S. “Progressive support for activities of daily living for persons living with dementia”. Gerontologist S1 (2018): S74-S87.
  5. Bookman A and Harrington M. “Family caregivers: a shadow workforce in the geriatric health care system?” Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 6 (2007): 1005-1041.
  6. Bakas T., et al. “Time and difficulty of tasks provided by family caregivers of stroke survivors”. Journal of Neuroscience Nursing 2 (2004): 95-106.
  7. Amato C., et al. “Assistance provided in daily tasks and difficulty experienced by caregivers for people living with dementia”. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal 3 (2021): 236-245.
  8. Bakas T., et al. “Family caregiving in heart failure”. Nursing Research 3 (2006): 180-188.
  9. Bakas T and Burgener SC. “Predictors of emotional distress, general health and caregiving outcomes in family caregiving of stroke survivors”. Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation 1 (2002): 34-45.
  10. Sallim A. et al. “Prevalence of mental health disorders among caregivers of patients with Alzheimer Disease”. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association 12 (2015): 1034-1041.
  11. Chung M., et al. “Predictirs of depressive symptoms in caregivers of patients with heart failure”. Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing 5 (2010): 411-419.
  12. Del-Pino-Casado R., et al. “Subjective caregiver burden and anxiety in informal caregivers: a systematic review and meta-amalysis”. Plos One 3 (2021): e0247143.
  13. American Psychiatric Association. “DSM-5: Manual de Diagnóstico e Estatística das Perturbações Mentais”. Climepsi Editores (2014).
  14. Oliveira K., et al. “Relation between anxiety, depression and hopelessness among elderly groups”. Psicologia em Estudo 2 (2006): 351-359.
  15. Whisman MA., et al. “Psychiatric disorders and dissatisfaction with social relationships: does type of relationship matter?”. Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science 109 (2000): 803-808.
  16. Den Boer J. “Social anxiety disorder/social phobia: epidemiology, diagnosis, neurobiology, and treatment”. Comprehensive Psychiatry 6 (2000): 405-415.
  17. Dourado D., et al. “Ansiedade e depressão em cuidador familiar de pessoa com transtorno mental”. ECOS- Estudos Contemporâneos da Subjetividade 1 (2018): 153-167.
  18. Unsar S. “Caregiving burden, depression, and anxiety in family caregivers of patients with cancer”. European Journal of Oncology Nursing 50 (2021):
  19. Stopa L and Clark D. “Social phobia and interpretation of social events”. Behaviour Research and Therapy 3 (2000): 273-283.
  20. Silva A. “Mentes com medo: da compreensão à superação”. Integrare Editora (2006).
  21. Barlow D. “The nature and development of anxiety and its disorders: Triple vulnerability theory”. Eye on Psi Chi 2 (2003).
  22. Lieb R., et al. “The Early Developmental Stages of Psychopathology Study (EDSP): A methodological update”. European Addiction Research 4 (2000): 170-182.
  23. Wittchen HU and Fehm L. “Epidemiology, patterns of comorbidity, and associated disabilities of social phobia”. Psychiatric Clinics of North America 4 (2001): 617-641.
  24. Vieira L., et al. “Providing care for a dependent elderly relative at home: reflections for health professionals”. Revista Brasileira de Geriatria e Gerontologia 2 (2012): 255-263.
  25. Mattick R and Clarke J. “Development and validation of measures of social phobia scrutiny fear and social interaction anxiety”. Behaviour Research and Therapy 4 (1998): 455-470.
  26. Pinto-Gouveia J and Salvador M. “The Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale in the Portuguese population”. XXXI Annual Congress of European Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies (2001).
  27. Nolan, M. et al. “Assessing the needs of family carers: a guide for practitioners”. Pavillon Publications (1989).
  28. Brito, L. “A saúde mental dos prestadores de cuidados a familiares idosos”. Quarteto Editora (2002).
  29. Carrillo-Cervantes AL., et al. “Loneliness, Anxiety, Depression, and Adoption of the Role of Caregiver of Older Adults with Chronic Diseases during COVID-19”. Aquichan 3 (2022): e2234.
  30. Duarte E., et al. “Common mental didorder among family carers of demented older people in Brazil”. Dementia and Neuropsychologia 4 (2018): 402-407.
  31. Beidel D C., et al. “The impact of social skills training for social anxiety disorder: a randomized controlled trial”. Journal of Anxiety Disorders 8 (2014): 908-918.
  32. Gross R., et al. “Social anxiety disorder in primary care”. General Hospital Psychiatry 3 (2005): 161-168.

Citation

Citation: Lídia Maria Ramos Serra., et al. “The Impact of Social Anxiety and Social Phobia on Difficulties in Providing Care for Family Caregivers to People with Dementia”.Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 7.10 (2023): 38-44.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2023 Lídia Maria Ramos Serra., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.




Metrics

Acceptance rate30%
Acceptance to publication20-30 days
Impact Factor1.403

Indexed In





Contact US