Care burden on family caregivers of patients with dementia and affecting factors in China: A systematic review

Abstract

Background: Dementia is a chronic and progressive illness characterized by severe impairment and high dependencies. Under the influence of Chinese traditional culture, 80% of patients with dementia are watched over at home by family caregivers as primary caregivers. However, long-term care brings formidable burdens to them and reduces the quality of their life. It is necessary to find out the influencing factors of caregivers’ burden. Methods: A scoping search was conducted on eight electronic databases from 1 January 2010 to 14 June 2022: PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, China VIP Database, China Biomedical Literature Database, and Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform. Research articles included in this review discussed the factors affecting Chinese dementia family caregivers’ care burden or stress, and the level of care burden was evaluated by a standardized care burden scale. Results: A total of 1,888 related articles were found and 23 cross-sectional studies were eventually included. After quality assessment, 12 were of good quality and 11 were of fair quality. A total of 32 factors were identified that were associated with caregiver burden, and the results were grouped into three categories: patient, caregiver, and society. The severity of disease, poor self-care ability, neuropsychiatric symptoms, care time, number of helpers, poor health status, economic stress, poor psychological status, social support, and age were reported in many previous studies. Conclusion: In this review, the factors that affect the caregiver burden for people with dementia were clarified. By identifying these factors, hospitals, decision-makers, and communities can carry out special projects for these populations, provide appropriate assistance, or design corresponding intervention measures to reduce the caregiver burden and improve the quality of care for patients with dementia. Systematic review registration: [https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/], identifier [CRD42022347816].