Department of Health Sciences, University of Navarre, 31006 Pamplona, Spain.
Department of Psychology, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Loja 110107, Ecuador.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Oct 8;17(19):7338. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17197338.
Informal caregivers are the main providers of care for the elderly. The aim of this study is to examine the predictive value of different variables regarding caregivers and their elderly patients with respect to the caregiver's burden. A convenience sample of 688 informal caregivers and 688 elderly people from Ecuador was surveyed. Only households with one caregiver and one elderly person were considered for the study. For informal caregivers, the following standardized measures were obtained: burden (Zarit Burden Interview), neuroticism (Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised-Abbreviated, EPQR-A), caregiver's general health (GHQ-12), and social support (modified Duke-UNC Functional Social Support Questionnaire, FSSQ11). For the elderly, we employed standardized measures of cognitive function (short portable mental status questionnaire, SPMSQ), Pfeiffer's test, and functional dependency (Barthel scale/Index, BI). Females were over-represented in caregiving and reported significantly higher burden levels than those of males. In both male and female caregivers, the burden was best predicted by the time of caring, neuroticism, and elderly cognitive impairment. However, some predictors of burden were weighted differently in males and females. The functional independence of the elderly was a significant predictor of burden for male caregivers but not females, while caregiver competence was a significant predictor for females but not males. These variables accounted for more than 88% of the variability in informal caregivers.
非专业照料者是老年人护理的主要提供者。本研究旨在考察与照料者及其老年患者有关的不同变量对照料者负担的预测价值。从厄瓜多尔抽取了 688 名非专业照料者和 688 名老年人作为便利样本进行调查。仅考虑一个照料者和一个老年人的家庭作为研究对象。对于非专业照料者，我们采用了以下标准化测量方法：负担（Zarit 负担访谈）、神经质（艾森克人格问卷修订版，EPQR-A）、照料者的一般健康状况（GHQ-12）和社会支持（改良杜克-UNC 功能社会支持问卷，FSSQ11）。对于老年人，我们采用了认知功能的标准化测量方法（简短便携精神状态问卷，SPMSQ）、Pfeiffer 测试和功能依赖性（Barthel 量表/指数，BI）。女性在照顾中占比过高，报告的负担水平明显高于男性。在男性和女性照料者中，负担主要由照顾时间、神经质和老年认知障碍来预测。然而，一些负担的预测因素在男性和女性中权重不同。老年人的功能独立性是男性照料者负担的一个重要预测因素，但不是女性的，而照料者能力是女性的一个重要预测因素，但不是男性的。这些变量占非专业照料者变异性的 88%以上。
