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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Sheindy Pretter, PhD¹, Mathew Maurer, MD², Victoria H. Raveis, PhD¹, Tina Sapienza, MSW¹, and Monique Carrero, MS¹. (1) Dept. of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University, 100 Haven Ave., Suite 6D, New York, NY 10032, 212-304-6487, sp431@columbia.edu, (2) Department of Medicine/Cardiology, Columbia University, 630 W. 168th Street, 3-342, New York, NY 10032

Spouses of older adults with cardiovascular disease experience a great deal of distress. As a consequence of caring for a spouse who has a chronic and/or potentially life threatening illness, they themselves are at risk for psychopathology and physical morbidity outcomes. Although heart disease is the leading cause of mortality in both men and women, studies of the impact of caregiving stress on spouses of cardiac patients have focused almost exclusively on caregiving wives. Little is known about the psychosocial consequences to older men of caring for a wife with cardiovascular disease and the extent to which these consequences differ by gender. This presentation will report preliminary results from an ongoing pilot study being conducted with 20 older adult cardiac patients and their caregiving spouses (ages 50-80). Patients accrued from an outpatient cardiac unit in a major university hospital are receiving telephone interviews, and their spouses are participating in qualitative in-person interviews. The presentation will focus on findings from content/thematic analysis of caregiver interviews and their implications for public health and clinical practice. Identified themes include: (1) challenges confronted by older spouses caring for patients with cardiovascular disease; (2) impact of caregiving on spouses' psychological and physical well-being; (3) the effect of caregiving on other aspects of aging (e.g., retirement, grandparenting); (4) factors influencing caregiving spouses' ability to cope with the illness experience (e.g., quality of the marriage, perceived social support, caregiving responsibilities, unmet caregiver needs); (5) and the ways in which these differ for husbands and wives.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify various challenges confronted by older adults caring for a spouse with cardiovascular disease.
• Assess the effect of caregiving on other aspects of the aging experience (e.g., retirement, grandparenting).
• Recognize the extent to which there are gender differences in the types of challenges confronted by caregiving husbands and wives and in the factors that influence their coping ability.
• Describe the implications of these findings for public health and clinical practice.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No