Alzheimer's Disease: The Impact of the Family on Spouses, Offspring, and Inlaws

This article reports the findings from a study designed to identify qualities of the multigeneration family system that affected the relationship between the demands of Alzheimer's disease on the family and the health and well‐being of (a) spouses, (b) offspring, and (c) offspring's spouses or “inlaws.” Members of 97 families of patients with Alzheimer's disease, recruited from four University‐affiliated Alzheimer's Centers, completed detailed questionnaires and participated in a 45‐minute telephone interview to assess care‐strain, personal stress, appraisals of three major domains of family life (World View, Structure/Organization, and Emotion Management), and three health and well‐being indices (Anxiety/Depression, Somatic Symptoms, and Well‐Being). Multivariate multiple regression equations, run separately for each of the three groups of family respondents and each of the three family domains, indicated: (1) no significant associations between the severity of the elder's disease and family member health and well‐being; (2) female family members reported poorer health and well‐being than male family members; and (3) caregiver strain was negatively associated with family member health and well‐being. Further, appraised family qualities were associated with the health and well‐being of the three groups of respondents differently: directly for offspring, interactively with severity of patient disorder for inlaws, and not at all for spouses. The data suggested that some family qualities served a protective function, whereas others exacerbated the negative effects of caregiving by affecting personal health and well‐being. The findings are interpreted in terms of the different roles and expectations for caregiving placed on spouses, offspring, and inlaws. It is suggested that programs of intervention for patients with Alzheimer's and other chronic diseases should focus on the multigeneration family as the context for care, rather than only on the primary caregiver.