Caregiver assessment of personal adjustment after stroke in a Veterans Administration Medical Center outpatient cohort.

Abstract

We evaluated 80 stroke patients to examine the contributions of caregiver anxiety, self-care ability, age, time since onset, marital and residential status, and need for health care services on personal adjustment as reported by caregivers. Mean age of the patients was 65.4 years, and the average time from stroke onset to evaluation was 415 days. Multiple regression analyses indicated that a significant amount of variance in patient adjustment was accounted for by caregiver anxiety (R2 = 0.28, p less than 0.05) and patient self-care ability (R2 = 0.13, p less than 0.05). Compared with community norms, stroke patients were reported to be more depressed, confused, and anxious and they demonstrated fewer household management skills. Stroke patients were not different from a normative sample on measures of interpersonal involvement or social activity. Caregivers had high levels of anxiety compared with norms. Our results may aid in developing methods for identifying stroke patients and caregivers at risk for suboptimal adjustment.