Quality of life and subjective burden of primary dementia caregivers in Bangkok, Thailand

Purpose: To study and compare factors correlated with quality of life and subjective burden of primary dementia caregivers at the Psychiatric Outpatient Unit of Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand.

Methods: One hundred and fifty-five dementia caregivers were enrolled from September 2015 to May 2016. A set of general information questionnaires, the Pictorial Thai Quality of Life (PTQL) and the Thai version of the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) were used to collect general information, quality of life and subjective burden data. Factors correlated with quality of life and subjective burden were analyzed by Chi-square test. Multiple regression analysis was used to define factors predictive of the caregivers' quality of life.

Results: Forty percent of the participants assessed themselves as having burden. Positive predictive factors of the caregivers' quality of life included high education, income, satisfaction towards psychiatric care and having jobs. Female gender, having financial problems, sickness, long caregiving hours per day, burden from taking care of other dependents, and subjective burden (p < 0.05) were negative predictive factors of dementia caregivers' quality of life.

Conclusion: The primary dementia caregivers' quality of life was correlated with their subjective burden, socioeconomic status and caregiving experiences. It is crucial to promote confidence in caregiving, perceived social support and positive satisfaction towards mental health care for dementia caregivers.