Development of a burden scale for caregivers of dementia patients

Abstract

Objective: To develop a scale to measure the burden of care for caregivers of patients with dementia and explore its factor structure.

Methods: The initial draft of the Thai dementia patients' caregiver burden (Thai-DCAB) scale was developed based on literature review, in-depth interviews and expert opinions. The drafted scale was administered to 203 caregivers of dementia patients treated at two large public hospitals in southern Thailand. An exploratory factor analysis using maximum likelihood extraction with varimax rotation was conducted. The reliability of the scale was assessed using Cronbach's alpha.

Results: The Thai-DCAB scale consisted of 18 questions. Three factors were obtained, covering psychological, physical and financial burdens of the caregivers in taking care of dementia patients. These three factors accounted for 67% of the variance. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.95.

Conclusion: The Thai-DCAB scale has high internal consistency and captures key theoretical constructs of the perceived burden among caregivers of patients with chronic and deteriorating dementia and in accordance with the social and cultural contexts and the way of life of the Thai people.

Keywords: Burden scale; Caregiver; Dementia; Factor structure.