Care recipients’ physical frailty is independently associated with subjective burden in informal caregivers in the community setting: a cross-sectional study

BMC Geriatrics

Research Article

Christopher Patterson¹  Sarah Karampatos¹  George Ioannidis¹  Sharon Marr¹  Courtney C. Kennedy¹  Thom J. Ringer¹  Brian Misiaszek¹  Afeez Abiola Hazzan¹  Tricia Woo¹  Alexandra Papaioannou¹ 

[1] GERAS Centre, Hamilton Health Sciences – St Peter’s Hospital Site, 88 Maplewood Avenue, L8M 1W9, Hamilton, ON, Canada;

关键词: Frailty;    Physical frailty;    Informal caregivers;    Caregiver burden;    Fried Frail Scale;    Zarit Burden Interview;    Katz index;    Activities of daily living;    Functional independence;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12877-016-0355-6

 received in 2015-11-29, accepted in 2016-10-27,  发布年份 2016

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundPhysical frailty is associated with significant morbidity and mortality in community-dwelling older adults. Burden in informal caregivers of older adults causes significant physical and psychological distress. However, the relationship between these two clinical phenomena has not been extensively studied. This cross-sectional study evaluated the relationship between physical frailty of community-dwelling older adults attending an outpatient geriatric clinic and the subjective burden reported by their informal caregivers.MethodsWe measured the following characteristics of 45 patient-caregiver dyads attending an outpatient geriatric assessment clinic: Physical frailty using the Fried Frail Scale (FFS); self-reported independence in activities of daily living (ADL) using the Katz Index; clinical diagnosis of dementia; and subjective caregiver burden using the short 12-item version of the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI). Multivariable linear regression was performed with FFS, Katz Index score, gender, age, and diagnosis of dementia as independent variables, and ZBI score as the dependent variable.ResultsOnly physical frailty significantly predicted caregiver burden (β = 8.98 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.15, 15.82).ConclusionsPhysical frailty is independently associated with caregiver burden in a population of community-dwelling older adults. Despite limitations related to sample size and lack of data about caregiver characteristics, this study suggests that the relationship between physical frailty and caregiver burden merits further study.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2016