The Relationship between Care Burden, Care Preparedness and the Quality of Life in the Home Caregivers of the Elderly with the Alzheimer's Disease in Iran Alzheimer’s Association

Care provision for Alzheimer's patients is associated with many challenges. Caregivers face high levels of care burden which leads to their reduced quality of life. Therefore, the current paper aims to investigate the relationship between care burden, care preparedness and the quality of life in the home caregivers of the elderly with the Alzheimer's disease.

This was a descriptive analysis research on 150 caregivers visiting Iran Alzheimer's Association, selected through simple random sampling and the table of random numbers. The instruments used in the study consisted of a care burden standard questionnaire, care preparedness questionnaire and caregivers’ quality of life questionnaire. Data was analyzed using SPSS V25 and statistical tests including independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation and simultaneous multiple regression analysis, with a significance level of 0.05.

According to the descriptive findings, the mean score (standard deviation) was calculated to be 17.31 (6.05) for the variable care preparedness, 28.62 (7.66) for care burden and 28.23 (2.48) for caregivers' quality of life. The results showed significant direct relationships between the age of caregivers and care burden, and also between the care preparedness and caregivers' quality of life. Moreover, there were significant negative relationships between care preparedness and care burden, and also between care burden and caregivers’ quality of life (p-value < 0.05).

Care preparedness is a predictor of care burden. An increase in care preparedness reduces caregivers' burden. Moreover, care preparedness and care burden are significant predictors of caregivers' quality of life. An increase in care preparedness causes an increase in caregivers’ quality of life and an increase in care burden reduces caregivers’ quality of life.