Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39873410›Full record

ArticleThe Gerontologist2025

Care Recipients' Cognitive Trajectories and Caregivers' Depressive Symptoms: The Mediating Role of Caregiving Burden.

Yifan Lou, Jiaowei Gong, Emma Zang

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PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in The Gerontologist, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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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.

2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Yifan LouSchool of Social Work, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-7413-324X
Jiaowei GongT.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Emma ZangDepartment of Sociology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

Funding

Yale Study Support Suite (YES3): Dashboard and Web Portal Software Supporting Research Workflow through integrated, customizable REDCap External ModulesP30AG021342 · NIA · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI Albert C Shaw · 2002 to 2026
$37.9M
Statistical Data EnclaveP30AG012846 · NIA · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · PI VICKI A. FREEDMAN · 1999 to 2026
$23.2M
Trends and Dynamics in Caregiving for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias: Extending the National Study of CaregivingR01AG062477 · NIA · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · PI FREEDMAN, VICKI A., WOLFF, JENNIFER L. · 2019 to 2023
$10.0M
Linked Lives, Linked Health: Health Trajectories of Persons with Cognitive Impairment and Their Caregivers' HealthR21AG074238 · NIA · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI ZANG, EMMA · 2021 to 2022
$473k
Alzheimer's Association and the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) 1R21AG074238-01Institution for Social and Policy Studies at YaleNIA NIH HHS P30 AG012846NIA NIH HHS P30AG012846NIA NIH HHS P30 AG021342NIA NIH HHS R01 AG062477NIA NIH HHS R21 AG074238Yale Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center P30 AG21342
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND

objectivesThe heterogeneity of population-based trajectories of care recipients' (CRs) cognitive functioning and how they are associated with their caregivers' mental health is less studied in the United States. Informed by the stress process model, this study examines the relationship between care recipients' cognitive trajectories and caregivers' depressive symptoms, and the mediating role of caregiving burden. RESEARCH DESIGN AND

methodsData were from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (2011-2020) for 1,086 care recipients and their 1,675 caregivers from the 2021 National Study of Caregiving. We applied Bayesian group-based trajectory modeling to identify distinct cognitive trajectory groups among care recipients. Hierarchical linear models were then used to examine the associations between these trajectory group memberships and caregivers' depressive symptoms. Finally, Gelbach decomposition analysis was conducted to investigate the mediating role of physical, emotional, and financial caregiving burden.

resultsFive cognitive trajectories were identified among care recipients: "high start, stable" (11.81%), "medium-high start, slight decline" (31.83%), "medium start, slight decline" (27.72%), "medium-low start, sharp decline" (20.60%), and "low start, sharp decline" (8.04%). Worse cognitive trajectories (e.g., lower baselines and steeper slopes) were associated with increasing caregivers' depressive symptoms; financial, emotional, and physical caregiving burdens jointly explained 63.5% of this association. Emotional caregiving difficulty is the most important contributing caregiving burden, explaining 49.6% of the observed association. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: When understanding caregiving experiences, it is critical to consider longitudinal cognitive course among care recipients. Interventions targeting multiple aspects of caregiving burden, especially emotional burden, should be prioritized.

Indexed as

Caregiver BurdenCaregiversCognitionDepressionAdultAgedAged, 80 and overBayes TheoremCost of IllnessFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedStress, PsychologicalUnited StatesCaregiving difficultyCaregiving strainGroup-based trajectory analysisMultiple caregiversStress process model

Identifiers

PMID39873410
PMCPMC11934274

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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.