title: Life worth living for caregiving and caregiver burden among Japanese caregivers of the disabled elderly in Japan.
abstract: The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between life worth living and caregiver burden among caregivers in Japan. We used 111 caregivers of frail elders who completed a self-administered questionnaire including the 8 items developed by Arai et al. (J-ZBI) used as a scale to measure subjective burdens and psychological factors used as covariates other than life worth living. Total score (0-32) of the J-ZBI was dichotomized into "high burden" (> or =21 points) and "low burden" (<21 points). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that only life worth living was significantly associated with caregiver burden. The direct effect of life worth living on caregiver burden (92.9%) was much greater than the indirect effect (7.1%). Our findings suggest that the increase of the sense of life worth living may play an important role in the prevention of the development of caregiver burden.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Aichi Prefectural College of Nursing and Health, Togoku, Kamishidami, Moriyama-ku, Nagoya 463-8502, Japan. okamoto@aichi-nurs.ac.jp
authors.forename: Kazushi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okamoto
authors.forename: Yumiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Momose
authors.forename: Ayumi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fujino
authors.forename: Yukari
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Osawa
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires