The Impact Of Family Function And Social Support On The Burden Of Disabled Elderly Caregiver

Objectives:The purpose of the study was to describe the care burden,social support andfamily function,analyze the relationship between them in the disabled elderlycaregiver,discuss how to reduce the caregiver burden,so as to provide scientific basisfor improving the quality of life of the disabled elderly and their caregivers.Methods:A cross-sectional design is used in this study.The directly survey of the disabledelderly caregivers who from30community service centers which extracted fromthree administrative regions(East Lake District,West Lake District and QingyunpuDistrict)in NanChang, Jiangxi province with Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview(ZBI),Social Support Rating Scale(SSRS)and Family Assessment Device (FAD). Alldata is analyzed in excel data by software SPSS17.0.Results:⑴In caregiver burden,the score of the male care recipient is higher than thescore of the female(p<0.05); the score of the care recipient with anomalous behaviorsis higher than that without anomalous behaviors(p <0.01);the score of the carerecipient with completely limited self-care ability is higher than that with partiallimited self-care ability(p <0.01);the score of caregiver who cared the disabled elderlywithin1-year or the care recipient have been sick within1-year is higher than theanother group(p <0.05);the score of the care recipient suffering stroke is higher thanthe other groups(p<0.05).⑵The burden of disable elderly caregiver is positive correlated with the ADLscore of care recipient,family functions of problem solving, communication, character,emotion, behavior control and general function;however,there is negatively correlatedwith the score of SSRS.⑶The disable elderly caregiver’ social support is basically at medium level,which percentage is62.2%; caregivers who get high level social support is lower thanthe another group(p <0.05). ⑷There is no declination and defect with the function of GF, PS.CM and RL；but the function of AR and BC are declination and defect;the function of AI isweaken.⑸The result of multiple linear regression demonstrate that self-care degree andsex of the care recipient are the most important determinants of caregiver burden androle burden;self-care degree、sex、anomalous behavior of the care recipient andfunction of RL are the most important determinants of personal burden.Conclusion:(1)The burden of disable elderly caregiver in low level;the social support’s ismedium;caregivers’ family function is normal,but that of emotional reaction andbehavior control get damaged,the emotional involvement weakening.(2)The higher self-care degree and without anomalous behavior of disableelderly,The higher social support level the caregivers get,the better function of RL,thelower the caregiver burden.(3)We should provide more intervention and support for the caregiver of maledisabled elderly men with abnormal behavior, low level of self-care and socialsupport, sick time and was nursing time≤1-year,poor family function.