Correlation study between care burden and quality of life of family caregivers and disability degree of elderly

Tang Juanjuan; Wang Junjie; Wang Yongjian

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1009-6493.2016.20.005

Abstract：Objective:To investigate and analyze the influence of disability degree of elderly on care burden and quality of life of family caregivers.Methods:A total of 135 disabled elderly and their family caregivers received the assessment by using the Barthel Index Rating Scale(BI),Zarit Burden Interview(ZBI)and the Mos 36 Item Short Form Healeh Survey(SF 36).According to the BI scores,the disabled elderly were divided into the mild disability group(41 to 60 points)with 42 cases,moderate disability group(21 to 40 points)with 55 cases and se-vere disability group(0 to 20 points)with 38 cases.The care burden and quality of life of family caregivers of disabled elderly in three groups were investigated,and the correlation between ZBI score,SF 36 score and BI score were analyzed.Results:The differences of total ZBI score and personal burden score,responsibility burden score among three groups were statistically significant(P <0.05 );the differences of physical function,bodily pain,general health,vitality scores of SF 36 scale among three groups were statisticaly significant(P <0.05);BI score was positively correlated with SF 36 score(P <0.01),and all were negatively correlated with total ZBI score and its dimension scores(P <0.01 ).Conclusion:The care burden and quality of life of family caregivers had a close relationship with disability degree of elderly,the medical staff should have simultaneous assessment or care burden and quality of life of family caregivers of severe disabled elderly,and take targeted measures to reduce the caregivers’burden,improve family care function and the quality of life of caregivers.