Stressful events associated with caregiving, sleeping disorders, and depressive symptoms among community-dwelling elderly

OBJECTIVE: Investigating relationships among stressful life events associated with caregiving, depressive symptoms, and sleeping disorders among men and women aged 65 and more. METHODS: There were 898 participants from the first wave of measures of a community study on successful aging. Participants were aged 60 to 69 (40,6%), 70 to 79 years (40%) and 80 years or more (19,4%); 50% were married and 90,3% have had children. 81,9% had 8 to 11 years of school attendance; more than a half of the sample family monthly income varied between three and eight unities of salary; 50% of the participants lived with two or more relatives. 646 were women (71,9%). Instruments included a questionnaire assessing socioeconomic characteristics, the Center for Epidemiologic Survey-Depression, the Elders Life Stress Inventory, and the Mini-Sleep Questionnaire, all them semantically validated to Brazilian elderly. RESULTS: Prevalence of depressive symptoms, sleeping disorders and caregiving was 33%, 37,5% and 35,5%, respectively. Women scored higher on depression, sleeping disorders and stressful experiences associated to caregiving than men did. Those that reported have lived a worsening of the health of a close relative showed significantly higher scores in the CES-D. Depression, caregiving, and being women appeared as independent risk factors to sleeping disorders, but in the multivariate analysis, the effects of caregiving covaried with patterns of sleeping and aging. CONCLUSION: New studies must clarify the independent role of caregiving stress, depression, gender and aging on sleeping disorders.