Effects of a physical therapy program on quality of life and the mental wear of caregivers of elderly with Alzheimer's disease.

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the effects of therapy on quality of life and mental burden on caregivers of elderly with Alzheimer's disease. Method: This research was performed in sub-regional abrazo de Araras / SP. 8 women participated in this research with an average age of 53.13 ± 12.77 years and duration of care with the elderly with AD 2 ± 0.76 years. In a systematic and regular physical therapy program with duration of six months and is held twice weekly and lasting for 60 minutes. To assess the mental wear of caregivers using the overload of Zarit scale and to verify the quality of life was used to scale WHOQOL-bref. Results: In quality of life of caregivers, measured by the instrument WHOQOL-bref, there were improvements in the physical, psychological and social analyzed by Cronbach's Alpha test (> 0.70). On the mental wear of the caregivers there was a mitigation of symptoms after physical therapy program analyzed by the Pearson correlation (rs = 4.56 and p <0.05). Conclusion: The role of physical therapy through a program of activities in groups, has improved the quality of life and alleviation of mental wear of caregivers of elderly with dementia of Alzheimer's disease (AD).