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Factor analysis and Rasch analysis of the Zarit Burden Interview for acquired brain injury carer research
Richard J Siegert1, Diana M Jackson, Alan Tennant
1Department of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation, School of Medicine, King's College London, London, UK. richard.siegert@kcl.ac.uk
Objective:
To examine the dimensionality of the Zarit Burden Interview in a sample of carers of adults with acquired brain injury.
Design:
A cross-sectional UK survey using postal questionnaires.
Participants:
A sample of 222 carers; 43 men (19.4%) and 179 women (80.6%); mean age 54 years. Types of brain injury included traumatic brain injury (49.5%), stroke (25.9%), brain infection (17.3%), hypoxia (4.1%), and "other" (3.2%).
Methods:
Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch analysis.
Results:
Unidimensionality was tested using confirmatory factor analysis, which showed a poor fit. The underlying structure of the Zarit Burden Interview was explored using principal components analysis and varimax rotation. This revealed 3 factors, although 1 comprised only 2 items. The 2 major factors identified were personal strain and role strain. They were then examined using Rasch analysis, which identified 2 brief and reliable unidimensional scales. There was no evidence of differential item functioning for different types of carer/brain injury.
Conclusion:
The Zarit Burden Interview is a promising mea-sure for the assessment of burden in carers of people with an acquired brain injury. It offers 2 reliable, brief subscales of personal strain and role strain for this purpose. However, it remains for these 2 brief subscales to be validated clinically in future research.