Care Needs Of Caregiver-oriented Intervention For Family Caregivers Of Disabled Elders In Far Western China:A Quasi-experiment Of The Effects On The Urghur And Kazakh Care Burden

Object: To evaluate the effects of an individually tailored intervention based on the community care needs of family caregivers in caring for disabled elderly for Muslim Uyghur and Kazakh family caregivers.Methods:The enrolled family caregivers(n=200) were assigned into either the intervention group(n=100)who received home visits, given care introduction manual, and telephone follow-up at different times, or into the control group(n=100) who were offered with care introduction manual only. This study aimed to measure the care burden of the family caregivers of Uyghur and Kazakh disabled elders using the Zarit Burden Interaction questionnaire; this measurement performed assessment at baseline and at 4, 8, and 12 months.Results: Two hundred family caregivers were recruited into this study; 186 family caregivers completed the study, consisting of 91 and 95 from the intervention and control groups, respectively.1.The scores of total care burden, psychological well-being, social life and evaluation for the overall burden over the intervention period, at 8 months and 12 months, were lower than the pre-intervention(P<0.001),while in the control group were higher than pre-intervention(P<0.05), and the overall care burden scores,psychological well-being scores, social life scores and evaluation for the overall burden scores of family caregiver in the intervention group were lower than those in the control group, significant differences were observed between groups(P<0.001); at 4 months, 8 months and 12 months, there were no significant differences between the groups and within the groups for the health scores of family caregivers(P>0.05);the family caregivers’ economy scores within the intervention and control groups also increased(higher scores) over the entire duration of the intervention(P<0.05), but there were no significant differences between the groups(P<0.05).2.The family caregivers in the intervention and control groups all demonstrated a sustained decline in the total scores of community care need(P<0.001), and total scores of community care need of family caregiver in the intervention group were lower than those in the control group, significant differences were observed between groups(P<0.001)。Conclusion:1.The statistical changes illustrated that the community care needs of caregiver-oriented intervention could be a positive function on the care burden of family caregiver, which can ease the the care burden by improving the mental stress, social life burden and the evaluation for the overall burden. However, we failed to improve the health burden and financial burden for family caregivers.2.Offering consecutive services for family caregivers by home visit, distribution of care introduction manual, and telephone follow-up could satisfy the family caregivers’ care needs.3.Those results support the hypothesis in this paper that caregivers burden can be relieved when meeting the care need of family caregiver.