Caregiving Burden, Community Services, and Quality of Life of Primary Caregivers of Frail Elderly Persons

TLDR

The study examines how supportive services reduce caregiver burden and how burden impacts caregivers’ quality of life, identifying key explanatory factors. The study surveyed 114 primary caregivers of physically disabled elderly through face‑to‑face interviews. Caregiver burden, influenced by many factors, negatively impacts multiple domains of caregivers’ quality of life, with effects moderated by service types, caregiver characteristics, health, and economic status.

Abstract

Caregiving burden was found to be affected by a multiplicity of factors and to affect the quality of life of family caregivers. The present study is aimed at examining the extent to which various supportive services help to alleviate caregivers' burden and the extent to which caregivers' burden affects various domains of the quality of life of primary caregivers and also to investigate the factors that best explain quality of life. The sample includes 114 primary caregivers who provided care to physically disabled elderly family members. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews. The findings show that various domains of the quality of life of primary caregivers were affected by the level of the caregivers' burden and the types of services provided to the elderly person, by caregivers' characteristics, as well as their health and economic status.