[Study on factors associated with family burden of Alzheimer' s disease]

To understand the family burden of Alzheimer' s disease (AD) and associated factors.

The subjects were 168 caregivers of patients with AD selected from two class 3A hospitals and three communities in Taiyuan through cluster sampling. The data were collected by using the Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI) and the Family Burden Scale (FBS) of diseases. Path analysis was applied to identify the factors associated with the total score of CBI. T-test and One-way analysis of variance were applied to identify the factors associated with the total score of FBS. Multiple linear regression analysis was applied to identify the factors associated with family burden of AD.

The total score of the caregivers' burden was 52.41±17.07. AD patients' cognitive function had direct (standardized β =-0.280, P<0.001) and indirect effect on CBI; while daily performance of AD patients had indirect effect on CBI. The total score of family burden was 16.23± 9.00. Univariate analysis showed that the sex, age, education level, cognitive function, daily performance, mental status, depression and dementia rating of AD patients might affect the total score of FBS (P<0.05) . Multivariate analysis showed that the factors which affected the total score of FBS included the sex (standardized β=0.280, P<0.01) , cognitive function (standardized β=-0.158, P=0.033) and daily performance of AD patients (standardized β=-0.155, P=0.039).

The caregiver and family burden of AD was mainly associated with the cognitive function and daily performance of AD patients. It is necessary to take targeted measures to reduce the caregiver and family burden of AD.