ArticleAging & mental health2024
Empathy and support exchanges in couples coping with early-stage Alzheimer's disease.
Article in Aging & mental health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Empathy and Psychological Outcomes in Informal Caregivers of Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Pooled it
- Spousal Discrepancies in Perceived Needs of People Living with Alzheimer's Disease: A Mixed-Methods Study of Caregivers' Perspective Taking and Dyadic Communication.Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society · 2026Article
- Receiving caregiver support and its association with hair hormones in people living with Alzheimer's disease: The role of caregivers' perspective taking.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Caregivers serving as confidants: relationship correlates and well-being by care-recipients' dementia status.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026Article
- Support that people living with Alzheimer's disease provide to their spousal caregivers: a qualitative study on dyadic perspectives.Aging & mental health · 2026Article
- Empathy is associated with older adults' social behaviors and verbal emotional expressions throughout the day.Scientific reports · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesResearch has extensively examined spousal caregiving in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but it remains unclear how people with AD help spousal caregivers. We aimed to describe emotional and practical support that people with AD and their spouses provide to each other and test the role their empathy plays in these support experiences.
methodsSeventy-two people with early-stage AD and their spousal caregivers independently reported empathy (personal distress, empathic concern, perspective taking) and the frequency and appraisal of support provision. Caregivers reported both partners' sociodemographic characteristics.
resultsPeople with early-stage AD and their spousal caregivers provided support to each other often. Caregivers provided more support but people with AD appraised support provision as more pleasant and less stressful. Lower personal distress in both partners and greater caregiver empathic concern were associated with more frequent caregiver support to people with AD. Greater empathic concern and perspective taking were associated with more pleasant appraisals of helping. Personal distress was positively associated with stress of helping.
conclusionFindings describe support reciprocity in early-stage AD and debunk the myth of people with AD being only recipients of care. We identify risk and resilience in couples per empathy and inform the design of dyadic interventions to promote mutually beneficial relationships in AD.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.