Sleep quality of spousal caregivers is associated with neuropsychiatric symptoms and living ability of patients with Alzheimer disease

Abstract

The inclusion criteria for patients with AD were: (1) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) diagnosis of probable AD conforming to the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association (NINCDS-ADRDA) criteria[8]; (2) a decline in cognitive and physical function for more than 2 years, and need for a caregiver for over 6 months; (3) completion of all clinical assessments, including the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE),[9] Clinical Dementia Rating (≥1), activities of daily living (ADL) assessment (≥25); and (4) exclusion of vascular dementia or other types of dementia caused by systemic diseases with neuroimaging. Exclusion criteria included: (1) severe malnourishment, infection, indwelling catheter, constipation, or pain; (2) presence of alcohol or drug abuse, or other diseases potentially related to sleep disturbance; and (3) a diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or primary affective disorder, and severe primary diseases of the heart, brain, liver, kidney, and hematopoietic system. Healthy controls that were willing to take part in the study were not taking care of patients with dementia. [...]all subjects enrolled have a family income of at least RMB 5000 yuan monthly to maintain a normal livelihood. Consistently, higher ADL scores in patients were associated with higher PSQI scores in caregivers. [...]the severity of psychiatric symptoms in patients with AD was positively correlated with sleep quality of caregivers.