Burden, anxiety and depressive symptoms in partners - course and predictors during the first two years after stroke.
Vincent C M Cox, Jennifer J E Welten, Vera P M Schepers and 4 others
PMID 35852093WHAT IT FOUND
Burden and depressive symptoms showed no clear change over two years, while anxiety dipped at six months and rose again by two years.
Partner distress, younger or older age, higher education and less proactive coping were linked to these outcomes.
Key findings
01Burden and depressive symptoms showed no clear change over time, while anxiety decreased between two and six months and increased again between one and two years after stroke.
02Higher partner burden was predicted by younger partner age, higher partner education, more partner anxiety and depression, greater patient stroke severity, lower patient cognitive functioning, and more patient anxiety and depression.
03Proactive coping had the strongest effect, with less proactive coping linked to more partner depressive symptoms.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The sample included more male patients and female partners than the Dutch stroke population, although sex was not a significant predictor in the models. The study did not record whether partners had received professional support, so measured distress may be lower than it would have been without support. Earlier or current mental health problems, medications, personality traits, passive coping and family functioning were not available, so other important influences on distress may be missing. Numbers at each time point varied because of dropout or incomplete responses.
Declared interests
The Restore4Stroke Cohort study was funded by the VSBfonds and the Dutch Heart Foundation, and coordinated by the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development under grant number 89000004.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that screening or supporting partners will reduce burden, anxiety or depression. This was an observational cohort study. It did not test an intervention, and it did not record whether partners had already received professional support.