Introduction: Increasing the prevalence of Dementia is one of the consequences of aging, Due to the nature of Dementia and high level of dependency, taking care of these patients’ leads to mental disorders in family caregivers. On the other hand, the existence of these disorders makes the family functioning disturbed. Hence, evaluating family functioning can be a suitable tool to predict family mental health. The evaluation of Anxiety in caregivers of elderly patients with dementia and their relationship with the family function was the aim of this study.
Methods: This methodological study was a correlation one. 150 family caregivers of the elderly suffering from Dementia referring to Iran’s Alzheimer's Association in Tehran by sampling in 1394-95 and according to Inclusion criteria were selected. caregivers' anxiety and their family function was measured through the Zung Anxiety Inventory and family functioning McMaster Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient, variance analysis, Scheffe post hoc test and multiple stepwise regression analysis using SPSS 19 software.
Results: 19.4% ٫and 1.3% of studied family caregivers of elderly suffering from Dementia had mild anxiety, and severe anxiety respectively. Family function in these patients was found in all dimensions except for the problem solving; also, there was a negative and significant relationship between all family subscales and carers' anxiety (P <0.001). The results of multiple stepwise linear regression analysis to predict anxiety on the dimensions of family function and underlying variables indicated that behavioral, economic status and health status were able to predict the variance of carers' anxiety.
Conclusions: According to the prevalence of Anxiety syndrome in caregivers of patients with dementia and the relation between families functioning with Anxiety, evaluating dimensions of family functioning as one of the important indicators of Family Therapy and Education can improve these caregivers’ health.