The effects of outpatient geriatric evaluation and management on caregiver burden

Gerontologist. 2000 Aug;40(4):429-36. doi: 10.1093/geront/40.4.429.

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of outpatient geriatric evaluation and management (GEM) on informal caregivers' sense of burden. We randomized 568 high-risk, community-dwelling older adults to receive either GEM or usual care for 6 months. At baseline and one year later, we assessed the burden experienced by their informal caregivers (N = 88). Compared with caregivers of participants in the usual care group, caregivers of participants in the GEM group were less than half as likely to report increased burden during the one-year follow-up period (16.7% vs 38.5%, p = .034). The findings suggest that GEM helps protect the informal caregivers of high-risk older people from the increases in burden that often accompany advancing age.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial
  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Attitude to Health*
  • Caregivers / psychology*
  • Cost of Illness*
  • Family / psychology*
  • Female
  • Geriatric Assessment*
  • Health Services Research
  • Home Nursing / psychology*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Minnesota
  • Program Evaluation
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Time Factors
  • Workload