Predictors of Burnout among Informal Caregivers of Older Adults: Using Discriminant Analysis

Lee, Haejung; Lee, Rhayun

Abstract

The purse fo this study was to examine the predictors of burnout among informal caregivers of older adults. One hundred thirty seven caregivers of who had provided care to older adults over 60 years of age for more than one month were included in the study. Most of the caregivers where white (91%) and female (78%). mean ages of the caregivers were 64 years and 78% of them were married. Seventy percent of the older adults suffered from Alzheimer and related disease. In this study, caregivers and related disease. In this study, caregivers reported that they experience burnout once a month. The scores of emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment of the caregivers were in the moderate burnout rang. To examine the predictors of burnout, discriminant analysis was used. Caregivers were divided by two groups based on the sum of score (cutpoint=6) on three dimensions of burnout after each dimension was categorized into high(3), moderate(2), and low(1). Nine predictors were include in the analysis: Caregiver's age, employment status, Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) of the older adult, presence of dementia of the older adult, caregiver's empathy toward the older adult(emotional and cognitive), and 3 coping strategies (negative, problem-focused, cognitive reconstructioning). Catefgivers who reported high burnout showed higher cognitive empathy toward the adults than those who showed low burnout. Caregivers who experienced high burnout used negative coping more often, and cognitive reconstructioning coping and problem focused coping less often than their counterparts. Wilks' Lambda was .78 indicating that their differences between the two groups were signigicant. Cognitive empathy and cognitive reconstructioning coping showed high standardized canonical discriminant function coefficients over .40. Discriminant function with 9 predictors correctly classified 71% of the sample. In conclusion, informal caregivers also experienced certain level of burnout. Cognitive empathy and coping strategies predicted burnout experience of the caregivers. Based on this study, nursing intervention to the informal caregovers to improve their cognitive empathy toward the older adults and to modify their coping strategies in way to reduce burnout experience can be applied. Further research to develop effective nursing interventions for the purpose of reducing burnout experience by modifying predictors was suggested.