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The development of a care-giving burden scale.

  • J.C. Gerritsen
  • , P.C. van der Ende
  • Northern Centre for Health Care Research (NCH)

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

A burden scale is described that is conceptually specific by concentrating on an assessment of different aspects of distress of care-giving burden and conceptually sensitive by distinguishing two dimensions: the relationship of the carer and the care-receiver and the limitations in the personal life of the carer. To develop a burden scale an analysis was carried out on a database of an intervention study in which 89 informal caregivers of psychogeriatric patients were interviewed twice. A principal components analysis was carried out showing two main factors that could be interpreted as the two dimensions mentioned above. Reliability analysis showed a Cronbach's alpha of 0.84 for the total care-giving burden scale (13 items) and 0.77 for both subscales (7 and 6 items), confirmed in an independent sample. An analysis of the hierarchy of items (Mokken Scale Analysis) showed a strong and moderate hierarchy for the subscales and the total scale, respectively. Finally, an analysis of construct validity showed strong correlations of care-giving burden with depression of the carer and deviant behaviour of the patient.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)483-491
Number of pages8
JournalAge and Ageing
Volume23
Issue number6
Publication statusPublished - Nov 1994

Keywords

  • caregiving
  • mental load
  • burden scale
  • psychogeriatric patients

Research Focus Areas Hanze University of Applied Sciences * (mandatory by Hanze)

  • Healthy Ageing

Research Focus Areas Research Centre or Centre of Expertise * (mandatory by Hanze)

  • Equality of opportunity and participation

Publinova themes

  • Other
  • Health
  • People and Society

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