抄録
As population ages rapidly, the need for caregivers will continue to increase. Family caregivers play an important role in delaying and possibly preventing institutionalization of older patients with chronic diseases. Caregiving by family members related to their subjective well-being and cognition. Especially, the sense of life worth living (ikigai in Japanese) is essential to maintaining their life-satisfaction and caregiving. However, there is a lack of research focusing on the sense of life worth living in older caregivers. The aim of this narrative review was to investigate the factors affecting the sense of life worth living and cognitive function for older caregiver. Two experimental studies were extracted: one qualitative study, and one quantitative study. There were no reports that evaluated the cognitive function in older caregivers. The sense of life worth living is associated with cognitive function and vice versa, it is possible to those factors that affect in life worth living also affect in cognitive function. In conclusion, this review suggest that intervention programs are associated with promoting the sense of life worth living of older caregivers. Further studies are needed to clarify the factor affecting this relationship between the sense of life worth living and cognitive function in older caregivers.
