Components of Burden: Interventive Implications

Abstract

A study of 127 informal caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients in Florida's Tampa Bay area was undertaken to determine the correlates of the five components of burden, as measured by the Cost of Care Index, a multidimensional measure of caregiving burden. Significant relationships between predictor variables and burden components suggest that global scores and measures of burden do not identify specific problem areas relative to the various components of burden.

Predictors of sense of competence in caregivers of demented persons

“…In most studies behavioural problems of demented persons (as reported by the caregiver) have been found to be related to higher caregiver burden or stress [2,3,13,15,18]. However, in other studies, behavioural problems were found to be positively associated with caregiver morale [16], or to have no relationship with caregiver outcomes [1].…”

“…Studies of the effects of severity of dementia on the outcomes of the caregiving process for the caregiver have given inconsistent results. Some studies have reported that outcomes for caregivers were more negative when the cognitive status of the demented person was lower [12,13], although Miller et aL [14] found the opposite; in other studies no direct association was found [1,3,5,15]. Deimling and Bass [15] reported an indirect relationship mediated by disruptive behaviour of the demented person.…”

“…ADL impairment refers to recipient's need for assistance in performing ADL ADL impairment has been shown to be positively associated with level of dementia [2]. Greater ADL impairment has been found to be related to higher caregiver burden [3,4,15,16], or to have no effect on caregiver outcomes [5,19].…”

“…In the existing research, a variety of concepts have been used to denote the outcome of the caregiving process for the caregiver. Current conceptualizations refer to consequences of the demented person's incapabilities, such as burden [1][2][3] and impact [4], or refer to consequences of the caregiver's capability, such as morale [5] and competence [6]. In their operationalizations all of these studies refer to the *Author for correspondence.…”

“…The potential determinants of sense of competence specified in the conceptual model include characteristics of the demented person, character istics of the demented person's social network, and characteristics of the caregiver. We also pay attention to the component domains of sense of competence; the advantage of such an approach is that it enables the researcher to examine predictors or correlates of specific domains of a phenomenon and to develop corresponding intervention strategies [3]. In this report we address the question: what factors influence the sense of competence of the caregivers of demented persons?…”