Association between components of family caregivers’ sense of burden and types of paid care services provided in Japan

Abstract

Objectives: The aim was to identify significant relationships between the 21 components of caregivers’ sense of burden in the Zarit Burden Interview and specific paid care services provided in Japan's long-term care insurance system. Method: We defined a service utilization level (SUL) that represents the amount of care services that caregivers were consuming. We calculated the ratios of people, among those with the same SUL value, whose sense of burden was weaker than a specific level. Finally, we conducted regression analysis and checked how this ratio varied compared to the change in SUL values. Results: For 12 among 22 components, the use of paid care services in general were significantly and linearly related with a smaller number of people having the strongest sense of burden. Several pairs of burden components and care service types were identified indicating that the type of care services effectively alleviated that burden component. Conclusions: (1) Paid care services do relieve caregivers’ sense of burden. (2) Measures to increase the ratio of people with the weakest sense of burden by encouraging the use of care services do not necessarily match those that decrease the ratio of people feeling the heaviest burden. (3) Policies that encourage caregivers to use more care services can be more effective if policy makers know which type of care service is related with a burden component.