The effects of family education program on the family caregiver burden of elderly with dementia disorders

Family caregivers are an essential part of health care services for elderly with dementia disorders, because providing care for such patients is a big burden for their families. This study aimed to assess the effects of family education program in reducing the burden of families of elderly with dementia. This is a clinical trial, in which 50 family caregivers of the elderly patients with dementia who had referred to two referral centers for dementia in the city of Isfahan were selected with convenient sampling and were randomized to experimental and control groups. The experimental group participated in a family education program but the control group did not. Data were collected by Zarit''s caregiver burden scale completed by caregivers of both groups before, right after and one month after family education program. Also Mini Mental Status Examination was conducted for elderly before the program. Finally data were analyzed with SPSS (version 16). Caregivers'' burden was gradually increased in controls, but decreased in the experimental group during the study. The mean of caregivers'' burden before, right after and one month after family education program were respectively 42, 35.44 and 33.56 in the experimental group, while they were respectively 43.28, 46.8 and 50.64 in the control group. Also there was a significant difference between caregivers'' burden of the two groups after intervention, but there was no significant difference between caregivers'' burden of the two groups one month after the intervention. Since conducting this program could reduce caregivers’ burden of elderly with dementia, developing such programs and evaluating them within research projects are recommended.