[Caregiver burden in caring for elders before and after long-term care service in Korea].
OBJECTIVE
Purposes of this study were: evaluation of family burden of caring for elders who receive long term care services, and examination of differences in burden before and after the introduction of long term care service in Korea.


METHODS
Data were collected by questionnaires from 416 caregivers of elders who were registered with the Long Term Care Insurance Corporation in six cities. Data were collected in September, 2010 and analyzed using descriptive statistics, paired t-test, and ANOVA with the Scheffe test, and stepwise multiple regression.


RESULTS
Family burden decreased significantly after long-term care service was initiated. Subjective burden decreased from 2.93 to 2.69 (t=11.78, p<.001), and objective burden, from 3.40 to 3.10 (t=12.73, p<.001). Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that factors affecting subjective burden were family relations (F=13.60, p=.003), age (F=5.47, p=.019), job (F=6.98, p=.008), and education (F=4.59, p=.032), and that factors affecting objective burden were living together (F=17.66, p<.001), job (F=13.34, p=.003), monthly income (F=6.61, p=.010), and type of service (F=6.62, p=.010).


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this first study to investigate caregiver burden after the Korean Long-term Care Insurance System was begun provide positive information for the development of strategies to decrease family burden in long term care.
Department of Nursing, Daegu Haany University, Daegu, Korea. lhj@dhu.ac.kr
Hung Sa
HS
Lee
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003858:Dependency, Psychological; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007353:Insurance, Long-Term Care; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012044:Regression Analysis; D056910:Republic of Korea; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires