Association between sleep, care burden, and related factors among family caregivers at home.

Abstract

AimSeveral studies have reported a negative correlation between depressive symptoms and family caregivers' (FCs) subjective sleep status. However, there is a paucity of information on the association between objective/subjective sleep status, care burden, and related factors.MethodsParticipants were 23 pairs of care receivers (CRs; Mage = 82.7 ± 8.5 years; 69.6% women) receiving long‐term care at home and their FCs (Mage = 66.9 ± 11.0 years; 69.6% women). At baseline, demographic data, subjective sleep status (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; PSQI), WHO‐5 well‐being, depressive mood, and frequency of going outdoors were collected. FCs wore a small, wrist‐worn device with an accelerometer to assess objective sleep status for a consecutive 24‐h 2‐week period, and they answered the Zarit Burden Interview short version (ZBI) every night before sleep. After 3 months, CR status was collected and analysed retrospectively.ResultsThe mean total sleep time over 2 weeks was 349.5 ± 69.6 min. The mean ZBI score over 2 weeks was 8.8 ± 6.8, which was significantly correlated with total sleep time (r = −0.42; P < 0.05), total time in bed (r = −0.44; P < 0.05), PSQI (r = 0.62; P < 0.01), frequency of going outdoors by CRs (r = −0.42; P < 0.05), and WHO‐5 well‐being among CRs (r = −0.50; P < 0.05). Multiple regression analyses revealed that total sleep time (β = −0.51; P < 0.05) was significantly associated with care burden (adjusted R2 = 0.45). At the 3‐month follow‐up, four CRs had been hospitalised or died, and their FCs displayed significantly severe care burden and slept less than at baseline.ConclusionsReduced objective total sleep time is significantly associated with the severity of care burden among FCs. Home‐based care is critical in Japan; therefore, it is meaningful to determine how to reduce care burden.