Gerontology & Geriatric Research

Abstract

The Level of Function of Dementia Patients has an Impact on the Caregiver Burden

Sarah Ahmed Hamza, Hend F Mahmoud, Valine Adib Rafaat and Adel Adel Abbas Mohamed

Introduction: Caregivers of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) suffer from psychological and financial burdens. However, the results of the relationship between burden and functional decline have remained inconsistent. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the impact of the level of function of dementia patients on the caregiver burden.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a sample comprised of Ninety-six primary caregiver of elderly patients with dementia. The cognitive function, functional impairments, depressive symptoms for patients and then caregiver burden were assessed.

Results: Caregiver burden was investigated using Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) investigated care giver burden, showed that (38.9%) of the caregivers suffered from severe burden, (37.9%) suffered from moderately severe burden and as regard care recipients’ dependency in basic Activities of Daily Living (ADL) the mean score was 3.68 ± 1.76 indicating moderate to high dependency, it was found that more functional impairment was significantly associated with higher caregiver burden as ZBI were significantly inversely (negatively) correlated with ADL and IADL of care recipients

Conclusion: Functional decline of care recipients associated with more care giver burden