An evaluation of the burden of Alzheimer patients on family caregivers

Abstract

Caregivers are indispensable to persons livingwith Alzheimer's disease; however, such care involveshard work, and the consequences of thisactivity on caregivers are often neglected. Theobjective of this study was to construct a profilefor caregivers of Alzheimer patients and to evaluatethe burden such care imposes on them. It is atransversal study of 122 caregivers from the metropolitanregion of Londrina, Paraná State, Brazil.Socio-demographic data for the caregiverswere analyzed, while the Katz scale and Lawtonindex were used to evaluate the functionality ofAlzheimer's patients, and the Burden InterviewScale assessed the burden these patients imposeon caregivers. Caregivers are predominantly married,are daughters who have learned to care forthe patient on a daily basis, usually with somehelp, and they do so out of love. The caregiver'sage (p < 0.01), whether or not the caregiver hadhelp (p < 0.01), and the number of hours caringfor the patient (p = 0.01) were associated with theimpact. Results showed that the burden imposedon caregivers by Alzheimer patients is a heavyone.