PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to investigate the levels of burden, family resilience and adaptation of caregivers of elderly patients with dementia, and further to identify factors influencing their adaptation.
METHODS
A cross-sectional descriptive study was designed. Data were collected from questionnaires distributed to 131 family caregivers of elderly patients who visited at the Centers for Dementia in Seoul during 2012~2013. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation analysis, and stepwise multiple regression.
RESULTS
The average age of the care giving subjects was 63.58, and 31.3% were male, and 41.2% were the spouses. Statistically significant relationships were found between burden and adaptation (r=-.38, p<.001), and between family resilience and adaptation (r=.52, p<.001), and between burden and family resilience (r=-.35, p=.001). Thirty percent of adaptation was explained by burden and family resilience. The most influencing factor to adaptation was family resilience which explained about 27% of the variance.
CONCLUSION
The results of the study clearly indicate that family resilience explains better than burden on adaptation of family caregivers. Thus, to develop more effective nursing intervention for family caregivers of elderly patients with dementia, it would be necessary to integrate family resilience in the programs. 27% is not that much and I wonder if we have to do more work to identify the factors that influence care giving.