Emotion-oriented coping increases the risk of depression among caregivers of end-stage renal disease patients undergoing hemodialysis.

PURPOSE: We investigated the possible association between coping style and depressive feelings among caregivers of end-stage renal disease patients undergoing hemodialysis.

METHODS: We studied 107 main caregivers of hemodialysis patients. Main caregiver was defined as the person on whom the patient counts for daily care or the one the patient calls upon in case of difficulties. Demographic data of caregivers and clinical data of patients were collected. The Jalowiec Coping Scale was applied to score two styles of coping: problem-oriented coping (POC) and emotion-oriented coping (EOC). Depression was screened by the 20-item version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). A score ≥16 was used to classify depression. Comparisons were made by Student's t and Chi-square tests. The Pearson's test was used to assess correlation between scores. Linear and logistic regressions were used, respectively, to test variables as predictors of the CES-D scores and the presence of depression.

RESULTS: The depression rate among caregivers was 71.9%. In the comparison between depressed and non-depressed caregivers, only EOC score differed, being higher among depressed ones (69.8 vs. 62.4; p < 0.001). EOC score was positively correlated with depression score (r = 0.368; p = <0.001). In the multivariate analysis, EOC independently predicted both the depression score (b = 0.272; p = 0.001) and the presence of depression (OR 1.221; 95% CI 1.123-1.339; p = 0.001).

CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that EOC is associated with and increases the risk of depression among caregivers of HD patients. We propose that strategies aiming to strengthen POC and diminish EOC can be applied to minimize depressive feelings.