Assessing caregiver burden: the role of assistive devices and identification of assistive device needs.

Purpose: There is insufficient information on whether the use of assistive devices is associated with a lower burden on caregivers of individuals with disabilities. This study was conducted (1) to examine how care recipient-level factors, caregiver-level factors, and the use of assistive devices were associated with caregiver burden, and (2) to investigate the assistive device needs of caregivers.

Materials and methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study used surveys. The participants were caregivers of people with disabilities living in Korea (n = 499). The independent variables were care recipient-level factors, caregiver-level factors, and utilization of assistive devices. The outcome variable, caregiver burden, was measured using the Korean Caregiver Burden Scale. For the data analysis, multivariate logistic regression models were built on the caregiver burden using variables that showed statistical significance in the univariate analysis.

Results: Model 1 included care recipient-level factors. Model 2 included caregiver-level factors in addition to care-recipient factors to examine caregiver factors associated with burden. Model 3 included the utilization of care devices, in addition to the variables used in Model 2, to investigate whether the use of care devices was associated with a lower burden. Caregivers who were married, were informal caregivers, or experienced greater psychological stress had an increased probability of experiencing caregiver burden. Moreover, not using assistive devices increases the odds of experiencing caregiver burden. The most desirable properties of devices are transfer, mobility, and bathing.

Conclusion: As the use of assistive devices is associated with caregiver burden, such care devices should be developed and provided to caregivers based on their individual needs.