Longitudinal study of caregiver burden: Differences between Japanese female and male spouse caregivers of people with dementia

Approximately 14 million Japanese people with dementia are living in the community with family members. Unfortunately, little is known about: (a) factors contributing to subjective caregiver burden; (b) caregiving gender response differences or; (c) patterns of caregiver burden over time. This proposed study would analyze spouses’ burden patterns and compare female and male caregiver groups over a 2-year period. Two-hundred female and male spouse caregivers of people suffering from dementia recruited from 20 peer support groups will be asked to complete the Burden Interview, the Memory and Behavior Problem Checklist, the Bristol Activities of Daily Living Scale, length of caregiving, and types of received home care through telephone interviews every 3 months after the initial in-take office interview. The results of the study may be applied to nursing interventions for spouse caregivers with possible differing approaches for female and male caregivers.