Abstract
The hypothesis that the pre-care relationship between the primary caregiver and the cared-for affects the caregiver's sense of burden, the relationships of the primary caregiver's sense of burden with other individuals and environmental factors was evaluated. The subjects were 125 female primary caregivers for care insurance recipients aged 65 years and over. The Zarit Burden Scale, and characteristics of primary caregivers, the care environment, and the cared-for were assessed. The subjects were divided according to their relationships with the cared-for into good-relations, fair-relations, and poor-relations groups. Both the total score of the Zarit scale (model I ) and the total score of the 14 items extracted by factor analysis of the Zarit scale (model II) were significantly higher in the poor-relations group. Through swap-wise multiple regression analyses performed using Models I and II as dependent variables and the questionnaire items as independent variables, 5 of the 7 items in which the scores were significantly higher in the poor-relation group were adopted for model II . As a result, from the assessment of the connection between the pre-care relationship and the intensity of the caregiver's sense of burden, model II was shown to more strongly reflect the caregiver's sense of burden in the three groups. The primary caregivers in the good-relations group were often housewives and working women, but those in the poor-relations group were divided into part-time workers and caregivers. In the poor-relations group, many of the cared-for were the caregivers' parents-in-law, and often living together began when care giving became necessary. Further, in the poor-relations group the time the cared-for had been receiving care services tended to be longer, and the family's understanding was significantly poorer. These features were in agreement with the higher level of disability, and the significantly lower intellectual and consciousness levels measured by the Karasawa method and the N-ADL level in this group. In this study, a few ADL items were significantly correlated with the caregiver's sense of burden; the correlations with items such as “sitting up and walking” and “eating, ” which require frequent assistance, were particularly high. These results suggest the validity of the study's hypothesis.
