Associations Between Informal Caregivers’ Burden and Educational Level

Abstract

Abstract. We investigated the association between the education of informal caregivers’ (IC) and their physical and mental burden. We hypothesized that better-educated IC would have more resources available to manage the care situation and as a result show lower perceived burden. We conducted a population survey of 6,087 German residents aged 18+ years, 966 of whom reported to be IC. Results show that IC felt more often mentally than physically burdened. In the multivariate analyses, higher-educated IC did not have lower odds of feeling physically burdened than lower-educated IC, though they did have increased odds of feeling mentally burdened. The higher perceived mental burden of higher-educated IC may be related to fear of loss of self-fulfilment and autonomy. Support services should consider the mental burden of higher-educated IC and tailor their interventions accordingly.

Caregiver burden among informal caregivers in the largest specialized palliative care unit in Malaysia: a cross sectional study

“…As depicted in this population, IC who are highly educated have double the odds of experiencing caregiver burden. In Germany, similar finding were found whereby educated IC experienced more caregiver burden [ 49 ]. In Netherlands, educated caregivers to cancer patients post-discharge were associated with low caregiver’s esteem [ 50 ].…”

“…Caregivers with low self-esteem have been associated with caregiver burden [ 51 ]. Oedekoven M. et al explained that highly educated caregivers are worried about the loss of self-fulfillment and autonomy when caregiving for the terminally ill [ 49 ] This creates fear and builds up the feeling of burden. Caregiving demands among educated caregiver may also interfere with their work performance compared to those who are lesser educated.…”

“…Respondents can be classified into having caregiver burden and no burden (≤ 21). Respondents suffering from caregiver burden can further be classified into mild to moderate (22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40), moderate to severe (41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54)(55)(56)(57)(58)(59)(60) and severe burden . The ZBI is the oldest and the most utilized instrument to assess caregiver burden in clinical and research settings [23].…”

Patient Navigation—Who Needs What? Awareness of Patient Navigators and Ranking of Their Tasks in the General Population in Germany

“…The result within the experienced group that better educated people rated emotional support as the most important task more often than less educated people points to a need for further research, as the background to this is unknown. A study by Oedekoven et al on physical and mental burdens of informal caregivers showed that higher educated people were affected more often than lower educated people by mental burdens due to their caregiving situation [ 45 ]. According to these results, it seems that prevention measures and patient navigation programs should be tailored more precisely to the educational background of patients in order to meet their specific needs more effectively.…”

Contribution of neuropsychiatric symptoms in Parkinson’s disease to different domains of caregiver burden

“…Multivariable linear regression models were used to characterize the associations between NPI-Q total score (independent variables) and CBI total score or each of the 5 CBI domain subscores while adjusting for potential confounders. Covariates were selected based on their relationship with caregiver burden from the literature, namely caregiver age, sex, education, and caregiving duration [ 4 , 6 , 8 , 21 ]. The same procedure was followed to model associations between NPI-Q individual symptom severity scores and the CBI total score as well as each of the 5 domain subscores.…”