title: The Italian version of the Zarit Burden interview: a validation study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Caregiving experiences in dementia may have adverse effects on the caregiver's own physical and mental health. The Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) is the most widely used instrument for assessing family carer burden and the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the ZBI (I-ZBI).
  
  
  METHODS
  I-ZBI was administered to a non-randomized sample of 273 caregivers related to consecutively attending outpatients with a previously established primary diagnosis of dementia, according to DSM-IV criteria. Measurements used for the construct validity of the instrument were the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R). Validity and reliability were evaluated, as well as the factor structure of the instrument.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Most caregivers were children (65%), female (72%) and living with the patient (53%), with quite a high level of burden. The I-ZBI demonstrates good reliability with high internal consistency (α = 0.90) and split-half correlation of 0.78, and good concurrent validity with other assessment tools. A five-factor solution was obtained for the I-ZBI and the original bi-factorial structure of the ZBI was not confirmed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Italian version of the Zarit Burden Interview is valid, reliable and useful for use in clinical contexts and in future studies that could lead to a better understanding of carer burden in dementia. Clarifying the factorial structure of the ZBI would help to further the understanding of the large body of research using it and would also help to advance the understanding of subjective burden.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Rabih
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chattat
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cortesi
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Izzicupo
authors.forename: Maria Letizia
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Del Re
authors.forename: Cinzia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sgarbi
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fabbo
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bergonzini
mesh_terms: D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011581:Psychological Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014175:Translating