title: Burden of caregivers for patients with mild cognitive impairment in Japan.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Caregivers of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) already experience a need for increased services comparable to that of individuals caring for Alzheimer's disease patients. However, there have been only a few studies on the MCI caregiver burden. In this study, we examined MCI caregiver burden in a larger number of consecutive outpatients in Japan.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred and four consecutive caregivers of people with MCI participated in this study. The caregiver burden was evaluated by the short version of the Japanese version of the Zarit Burden Interview (sZBI).
  
  
  RESULTS
  About 20% of the caregivers reported a clinically significant burden. The multiple linear regression analysis showed that the caregiver burden was significantly associated with neurobehavioral symptoms (p < 0.001) and memory problems (p = 0.022) of the patient.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The caregiver burden of MCI patients should be given more attention. The management of neurobehavioral symptoms may be important to reduce the burden on caregivers of MCI patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan.
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: Seishi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Terada
authors.forename: Shigeto
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nagao
authors.forename: Chikako
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ikeda
authors.forename: Aki
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shindo
authors.forename: Etsuko
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Oshima
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Yokota
authors.forename: Yosuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Uchitomi
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires