Caregiving Immediately After Stroke: A Study of Uncertainty in Caregivers of Older Adults.
Eeeseung Byun, Barbara Riegel, Marilyn Sommers and 2 others
PMID 27824803WHAT IT FOUND
Stroke caregivers' uncertainty did not change over the first six weeks.
Older spouses, stressed or depressed caregivers, those with more illnesses or poorer coping, and caregivers of survivors with recurrent stroke or poor function were most uncertain.
Key findings
01Caregiver uncertainty did not change over the first 6 weeks after stroke.
02Greater caregiver uncertainty was associated with older caregiver age, being a spouse, higher stress, more depressive symptoms, more caregiver comorbidities, poorer coping, survivor recurrent stroke, poorer survivor function, and insurance type.
03By the second visit, caregivers reported higher comorbidity scores, better coping, and less social support, while stroke survivors' functional status improved.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Convenience sampling from one geographic region and only caregivers of adults aged 65 or older limit generalizability. Small sample and many separate unadjusted models make chance findings possible. Attrition was 38%, and the 23 people not analyzed had more baseline social support and were more likely non-Hispanic White, so the remaining sample may not represent all caregivers. Mixing caregivers of first stroke and recurrent stroke added heterogeneity. Some stroke-survivor data at the second visit came from caregiver report rather than records. No intervention was tested, so the study cannot show whether reducing uncertainty improves caregiver outcomes.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume caregiver uncertainty will fade as the stroke survivor improves. Uncertainty did not change over the first 6 weeks, and no intervention was tested.