title: [Reliability and validity of a new assessment of the burden on caregivers (ABC-16)].
abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of a newly developed self-administered assessment of the burden on caregivers (ABC-16) in 82 caregivers (21 men: 61 women, mean age 61 +/- 13 years) including 51 family members caring for patients after stroke with physical impairments, and 31 family members caring for patents with chronic schizophrenia. The ABC-16 consists of 16 items and is designed to cover 4 domains (burden of troubles with care receivers, burden of loss of social life, financial burden, burden of impairment of caregiver's health). The internal consistency was high (alpha=0.854) and significant correlations among the four dimensions were found (P < 0.0001). Factorial analysis showed 5 latent factors and a multiple regression analysis showed the strong correlations between the ABC-16 and care giving during the night (P = 0.0045), which strongly suggested excellent validation. The mean and standard deviation of the total score of the ABC-16 was 14.66 +/- 7.87 (burden of troubles with care receivers; 4.10 +/- 2.36, burden of loss of social life; 4.21 +/- 2.54, financial burden; 2.93 +/- 2.65, burden of impairment of caregiver's health; 3.43 +/- 2.32). The results indicated that the ABC-16 was a tool assess care burden with high reliability and validity, and was carried out easily and quickly by all participants without complex explains.
authors.affiliation: Health Administration Center of Kansai University.
authors.forename: Norihiko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Iida
authors.forename: Noriyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kohashi
authors.forename: Takehiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okamura
authors.forename: Ki'ichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nagao
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003858:Dependency, Psychological; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires