Caring for a frail older person: the association between informal caregiver burden and being unsatisfied with support from family and friends

Abstract

Background/objective although informal caregivers (ICG) find caring for a relative mainly satisfying, it can be difficult at times and it can lead to a state of subjective burden characterised by -among others- fatigue and stress. The objective of this study is to analyse the relationship between perceived social support and subjective burden in providing informal care to frail older people. Methods a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using data from a large nationwide longitudinal effectiveness study. Pearson correlations were calculated between the variables for support and burden. Logistic regression models were applied to determine the association between being unsatisfied with support and burden, taking into account multiple confounding variables. Results of the 13,229 frail older people included in this study, 85.9% (N = 11,363) had at least one informal caregiver. Almost 60% of the primary informal caregivers manifested subjective burden, measured with the 12-item Zarit-Burden-Interview (ZBI-12). The percentage of informal caregivers that were unsatisfied with support from family and friends was on average 11.5%. Logistic regression analysis showed that being unsatisfied with support is associated with burden (OR1.85; 95%CI1.53–2.23). These results were consistent for the three groups of impairment level of the frail older persons analysed. Conclusions the association between perceived social support and subjective caregiver burden was explored in the context of caring for frail older people. ICGs who were unsatisfied with support were more likely to experience burden. Our findings underline the importance of perceived social support in relation to caregiver burden reduction. Therefore efforts to improve perceived social support are worth evaluating.

High Burden among Older Family Caregivers is Associated with High Prevalence of Symptoms: Data from the Swedish Study “Good Aging in Skåne (GÅS)”

“…Therefore, it was surprising to find that the prevalence of depressive and tension-related symptoms was so high in our Swedish caregiver population. Depressive mood was reported by 27.6% of the male caregivers and 39.2% of the females (data not shown), which should be compared to a Belgian study looking at caregivers to frail, elderly people where 11–22% of caregivers reported feelings of depression and anger [ 25 ], or a Norwegian study where 18% male and 30% female caregivers to cancer patients reported depressive symptoms [ 26 ].…”

“…The gender differences found in our study population could be explained by physiological and social aspects. In a caregiving context, coping mechanisms, social support, and socioeconomic factors have all been shown to affect perceived burden [ 22 , 25 ]. Gender and socioeconomic inequalities were reported from a Spanish nationwide survey [ 21 ] where women had less access to formal support.…”

Pre-frailty, frailty and associated factors in older caregivers of older adults

“…Informal care is usually provided by a family member in the same age group as the care recipient (generally a wife or daughter) 3 . Besides facing their own aging process and health problems 4 , these individuals must deal with a variable and increasing load of tasks throughout the care process 5 .…”

Development and evaluation of an intervention on suPpoRting infOrmal cAregivers of older people with early CogniTIVe declinE (PROACTIVE): a study protocol based on the Medical Research Council framework

“…24 In Belgium, perceived greater social support from family and friends is related to lower informal caregiver burden. 25 In this perspective, the NYUCI, with its unique emphasis on the maximisation of social support for informal caregivers could also work well in the Flemish context. Therefore, we will develop a Flemish adaptation of the NYUCI for the target group of informal caregivers of older people with early cognitive decline.…”