Determination of the burden of caregivers for population aged 85 and over in burdur province

The number of older elderly people over 85 years of age is increasing day by day. With this increase, caregivers and the care-based burdens of caregiver are increasing. In this study, it was aimed to determine the burden of caregivers who care for population over 85 years old in Burdur province and to direct the work to be done in this area. The universe of this cross-sectional study was 3741 individuals over 85 years of age living in Burdur province. N=3741 subjects, p=0.50; q=1-p; t=1.96; d=0.05 and the sample size is calculated as 348 persons. However, considering the possibilities of death in the elderly and hospitalization, the number of samples was accepted as 395. For those who are over 85 years of age who agreed to participate in the survey, we collected the data by applying our self-administered questionnaire including the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI), Katz's Activities of Daily Living Index (ADL) and Lawton - Brody Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale (IADL) The data of the study were collected by interviewers at home with face-to-face interview technique. The descriptive statistics were number, percentage, mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum values. The analytical evaluations were applied t-test and ANOVA tests on the scale scores. For the statistical significance, p<0.05 was taken as the limit value. Bonferroni analysis was performed to determine which group the fracture originated from. In order to determine the reasons affecting the care burden the analysis was done by Forward Linear Regression method. 95.2% (376 persons) of the sample were reached in the study. The average age of the elderly is 88.0 and the standard deviation is 2.5. 79.5% are in the 85-89 age group. 65.4% of the elderly were female while 34.6% of were male. 58.2% are primary school graduated. 69.7% of the elderly have a widow and 94.1% have health insurance. 77.4% of the elderly had any chronic disease and the most common chronic disease (43.6%) was hypertension. When the elderly were assessed for dependency status according to Katz's ADL index; 3.6% of the elderly were fully dependent, 12.8% of the elderly were semi-dependent and 84.0% of the elderly were independent. When dependency status is evaluated according to the Lawton and Brody's IADL index; 10.1% fully dependent, 43.1% semi dependent and 46.8% independent. While 68.4% of the elderly were being cared by someone else, 31.6% of the elderly did not need to care for someone else. 52.9% of caregivers were children of the elderly. The average age of caregivers was 60.3 and the standard deviation was 13.1. 84.8% of caregivers were women and 54.9% were primary school graduated. According to ZBI; 26.8% of the caregivers had no burden, 38.5% of them had mild, 24.6% had moderate and 10.1% of had heavy burden. Dependence according to ADL and IADL parameters, the poor general health perception and living in the same house with the elderly were found to be statistically significant as increasing the burden of the caregivers (p=0.004, p=0.004, p<0.001, p=0.026). Knowing the characteristics of caregivers is important; to determine the risk groups and to form supports, to plan the ministration, to determine the resources, to develop the health and insurance institutions services and to develop policies. Key words: Burdur; Elderly over 85 years; care burden