Caregiving Burden of Family Caregivers of Older Adults with Disability and Perceived Social Support Residing in a Community - A Pilot Study

Abstract

Introduction: As family is the backbone of providing long-term care for their older adults in Nepal. Prolong caring responsibilities put the family caregivers in a state of exhaustion. One of the elements of that has potential of reducing the effect of stressors among family caregivers is social support. This study aimed to assess the caregiving burden of family caregivers of older adults and their social support status in Toka Municipality of Kathmandu district.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted for assessing caregiving burden of family caregivers and their social support status after completion of translation English version of six-item cognitive impairment test (6-CIT) questionnaires and social support rating scale (SSRS) into Nepalese language. Non-probability, convenience sampling technique was used while selecting 60 family caregivers of older adults. Data was collected using a structured interview schedule at participants’ residences between September and October 2021.

Results: This study depicted that 23.3% of family caregivers of older adults had reported caregiving burden. The content validity index of Nepalese version of 6-CIT and SSRS were 0.90 and 0.75, as measured after consulting with 5 experts’ scoring in average. Likewise, 80% of family caregivers perceived moderate level of social support and its calculated Cronbach alpha value was 0.794.

Conclusion: Nearly one-fourth of family caregivers have caregiving burden and nearly four fifth of them perceive moderate level of social support. The Nepalese version of the 6-CIT and SSRS have the acceptable content validity index as well as SSRS has high Cronbach Alpha value. These findings directed the researcher for conducting the main study on factors associated caregiving burden of family caregivers in Nepal.