A study of caregiver burden for: Spouse caregivers of persons with organic mental disorders of the Alzheimer's type or related disorders
Description
This study focused on the experience and determinants of caregiver burden for one specific caregiving relationship, that of spouse caring for spouse with Alzheimer's Disease or mixed dementia. The subjects were couples, of which one partner was a patient attending a university hospital Memory Disorders Clinic. This caregiver sample included 19 husbands and 17 wives; they were representative of the ethnic mix of South Louisiana To study factors contributing to the dependent variable, burden experienced by spouses caring for dementia patients, the statistical association of patient and caregiver independent variables to the Zarit Burden Interview (Zarit, et al., 1985) scores were analyzed by Chi-Square, T-Test, Analysis of Variance, Analysis of Co-Variance and Multiple Regression Analysis. Patient independent variables were: age, sex, education, socio-economic status, ethnic group, dementia diagnosis, duration of dementia, Mini-Mental State Examination Scores and a alcohol history. Caregiver independent variables were: age, sex, education, socio-economic status, ethnic group, health status, alcohol history, marital satisfaction, assistance in the home, and tolerance of behavioral problems The first question analyzed patient and caregiver biographical/demographic characteristics that contributed to caregiver burden. The second question explored illness characteristics that contributed to caregiver burden. Psychosocial factors contributing to caregiver burdens were examined in the third question. Patient and caregiver alcohol histories that contributed to caregiver burden were investigated in the fourth question Instruments used for the independent variables were the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for biographical/demographic information and for alcohol history (Rabins, 1981). Marital satisfaction was obtained from the Spainer Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Spainer, 1976). Frequency and tolerance of behavioral problems were measured by the Zarit Memory and Behavior Problems Checklist (Zarit, et al., 1986). Life satisfaction was measured by the Life Satisfaction Index A (Neugarten, et al., 1981) Results of this study indicate that caregiver associated psychosocial variables as measured by the Tolerance subscale of the Zarit Memory and Behavior Problem Checklist (p $<$.0002) and lack of assistance in the home, p $<$.002) were significantly related to spouse caregiver burden. The relationship of spouse use of alcohol approached significance (p =.08) Thus, given a marital situation, stressed by dementia in one partner, selected caregiver rather than patient variables were found to contribute to the spouse caregiver perception of burden