Journal
JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY
Volume 26, Issue 12, Pages 622-628Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.2188/jea.JE20150263
Keywords
social support; caregiver's burden; long-term care; Japan; older people
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Funding
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan [33918 I-1 2003-2008, 25253052, 23243070]
- Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan [H26-Choju-Ippan-006, H25-Choju-Ippan-003, H25-Kenki-Wakate-015]
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [25253052, 15H01972, 15KT0007] Funding Source: KAKEN
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Background: We examined the associations of informal (eg, family members and friends) and formal (eg, physician and visiting nurses) social support with caregiver's burden in long-term care and the relationship between the number of available sources of social support and caregiver burden. Methods: We conducted a mail-in survey in 2003 and used data of 2998 main caregivers of frail older adults in Aichi, Japan. We used a validated scale to assess caregiver burden. Results: Multiple linear regression demonstrated that, after controlling for caregivers' sociodemographic and other characteristics, informal social support was significantly associated with lower caregiver burden (beta = -1.59, P < 0.0001), while formal support was not (beta = -0.30, P = 0.39). Evaluating the associations by specific sources of social support, informal social supports from the caregiver's family living together (beta = -0.71, P < 0.0001) and from relatives (beta = -0.61, P = 0.001) were associated with lower caregiver burden, whereas formal social support was associated with lower caregiver burden only if it was from family physicians (beta = -0.56, P = 0.001). Compared to caregivers without informal support, those who had one support (beta = -1.62, P < 0.0001) and two or more supports (beta = -1.55, P < 0.0001) had significantly lower burden. This association was not observed for formal support. Conclusions: Social support from intimate social relationships may positively affect caregivers' psychological wellbeing independent of the receipt of formal social support, resulting in less burden.
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