Disclosures: Matthew Tay, MRCP: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest

Objective: To investigate the prevalence and risk factors associated with caregiver burden in primary caregivers of patients with severe traumatic brain injury.

Design: Exploratory cross-sectional study. Setting : Outpatient clinic of a tertiary rehabilitation center. Participants : Primary caregivers (N = 77) were consecutively recruited. These were either familial caregivers or foreign domestic workers.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures: Caregiver burden was measured by the Zarit Burden Index (ZBI). The presence of depression was determined by the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and anxiety was determined by the General Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) scale. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine factors associated with the presence of caregiver burden.

Results: Clinically significant caregiver burden was experienced in 47 (61%) of participants. There were 6 (7.8%) caregivers who had clinically significant depression and 16 (20.8%) caregivers who had clinically significant anxiety. On multivariate analysis, factors found to be associated with caregiver burden were Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended (GOSE) of < 7 (P = 0.045), presence of neuropsychiatric complications (P = 0.0017), caregiver age (P = 0.048) and presence of caregiver anxiety (P = 0.003). Conclusions: There is a high rate of caregiver burden in both caregivers of patients with severe traumatic brain injury. Caregivers experiencing stress should also be monitored for the presence of anxiety or depression.

Level of Evidence: Level II

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/the-neglected-burden-of-caregiving-in-patients-with-traumatic-brain-injury/