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conferenceseries
.com
Volume 8
Journal of Alzheimers Disease & Parkinsonism
ISSN: 2161-0460
Euro Dementia 2018
May 24-25, 2018
May 24-25, 2018 | Vienna, Austria
11
th
International Conference on
Alzheimers Disease & Dementia
Caregiver burden of informal caregivers of patients referring to the memory clinic of Bolzano
L Valzolgher
1
, F Ebner
1
, F Lubian
1
, E Aspmair
1
, M Farsad
2
and
A March
1
1
Memory Clinic, Geriatric Department, Hospital of Bolzano
2
Nuclear Medicine Department, Hospital of Bolzano
Objectives:
To measure the caregiver burden and the risk for psychosomatic problems among family caregivers of patients
referring to the Memory Clinic at the Hospital of Bolzano for the diagnosis of neurocognitive disorders. We also analyze the
factors related to the burden in the subgroup with higher burden.
Method:
From June 2015 to September 2017, 913 patients came with their caregivers to undergo diagnostic procedures for
neurocognitive disorders, including clinical and neuropsychological evaluation, blood samples, and neuroimaging. To measure
the burden, we used the BSFG (Burden Scale for Family Caregivers) a 28-item questionnaire validated for both Italian and
German, since it is a bilingual community. The level of the burden measured by the total score, can be divided into 3 levels:
0–35 no or minimal burden; from 36–45: minimal to moderate burden and score above 46 high burden. 903 caregivers who
complete the self-administered BSFG were included. For this analysis a subgruop of 104 patients were considered (evaluated
for three consecutive months from 20/2 untill 20/4/2017). Disability was measured by BADL/IADL, comorbidity by the CIRS-
index.
Results:
The age of the patients ranged between 65–95 years (average age 79.81±6.27). 65% of the patients were women and
35% were men. The majority of the caregivers were female (60.6%), male were 35.6%, and in 3.8 % of the cases more caregivers
were involved. 60% caregivers were children (including children-in-law); 27% were spouses (wives/husbands); 13% had other
relations (sisters/brothers, cousins, grandchildren, nephews, nieces). The score obtained in the BCSF ranged between 0–77;
the average score was 26. 13.5% caregivers showed high burden, 15.4% caregivers had minimal to moderate burden while
and the majority of caregivers 71.1% showed no or minimal burden. In the comparison between the two groups (minimal
vs. moderate-high burden), in the subgroup with high-moderate burden, significant factors were high level of disability, high
comorbidity and the presence of neuropsychological symptoms.
Conclusion:
Caregivers of family members with dementia are exposed to depressive symptoms and physical problems. The
burden of the caregiver can impact the quality of life of both patients and family members, and it is known to be associated with
negative outcomes such as risk for institutionalisation, worse prognosis, higher social and health costs.
Lauravalzolgher@hotmail.comJ Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism 2018, Volume 8
DOI:10.4172/2161-0460-C3-043