Investigation of the care burden of family members caring for patients with alzheimer dementia

Objective: The aim of this thesis is to examine the caregiving burdens of individuals providing care to relatives with Alzheimer's disease and the associated factors. Method: This study was conducted as a cross-sectional survey involving 392 individuals providing care to their relatives being followed at the private Neurology Clinics in Antalya. The Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI), the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-Short Form, and a socio-demographic information form prepared by the researcher were administered. Results: Women exhibited a more negative profile than men in all psychological categories. In the "moderate" depression and anxiety categories, both genders showed similar distribution; however, the "severe" and "very severe" categories were significantly higher in women (2.2-2.3 times higher in depression and anxiety, and 1.6 times higher in stress compared to men). Disease stage showed weak but notable correlations with time dependency, developmental, physical, and overall caregiving burdens. Strong correlations were observed between developmental burden and physical burden (0.778), developmental burden and total caregiving burden (0.877), and physical burden and total caregiving burden (0.856), indicating that these types of burdens are interrelated. Moderate correlations were found between time dependency and total burden (0.595), social burden and total burden (0.681), and emotional burden and total burden (0.540). Weak correlations were noted between time dependency and both social (0.115) and emotional burdens (0.021), suggesting that time dependency has less psychological impact. Conclusion: Providing care for Alzheimer's patients is a complex issue related to various psychosocial and medical aspects, such as the caregiving process, disease progression, and support networks. Comprehensive studies and the development of support networks are needed to better understand the situation of the patients' relatives. Key words: Alzheimer's, care burden, caregiver