Caregiver burden and influencing factors of primary caregivers of disabled elders in Guangzhou

Abstract

Objective To investigate the caregiver burden of primary caregivers of disabled elders in Guangzhou, and analyze its influencing factors. Methods Totally 221 primary caregivers of disabled elders in Guangzhou were investigated by the general information questionnaire, activities of daily living scale (ADL) , the Conner-Davidson resilience scale (CD-RISC) , Zarit burden interview (ZBI) and perceived social support scale (PSSS) . Results The burden score of primary caregivers was (34.81±15.51) , which was significantly higher than other caregivers (21.12±10.32) in China (t=13.048, P<0.01) . Multiple linear regression showed that, the burden of primary caregivers were mainly affected by their resilience level, social support level, marital status, the amount of financial support that patients provided, and the disabled level of elders (β '=-0.219, -0.155, -0.157, 0.218, 0.202; P<0.05) . All factors above explained 19.4% variance of the burden of caregivers. Conclusions The burdens of primary caregivers of disabled elders are in different level. Multiple factors directly influence the level of burden of caregivers and may indirectly reduce their quality of life. Hence, attention should be paid by the society and government. Key words: Disabled elders; Caregivers; Caregiver burden; Influencing factors