Factors associated with the burden of family caregivers of elderly patients with femoral neck fracture: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to study the factors associated with caregiver burden among caregivers of elderly patients with femoral neck fracture. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was based on a non-probabilistic sampling of 183 elderly postoperative patients (aged 65 years or older) with femoral neck fracture who were hospitalized in the orthopedic center in our hospital and their family caregivers. Data were collected from January 2016 to June 2019. Patients and family caregivers completed the sociodemographic questionnaire. The Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), and the Chinese version of the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) were used to evaluate social support, self-efficacy, and caregiver burden, respectively. By analyzing the clinical data of patients and family caregivers and combining the factors that affect the caregiver burden in parallel studies, we selected the factors that affected the caregiver burden in this study and conducted a multivariate analysis of these factors. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: We observed 176 caregivers aged 69.28 ± 7.19 years old, among whom 52.3% were male, 58.0% lived in the city, 84.0% were spouses of the patients, and 67.0% had a primary school educational background. The ZBI score of the family caregivers was 37.8 ± 8.9, and 82.7% of the caregivers were under a moderate to severe burden. The patient’s functional status, Harris score, and pain score and the caregiver’s SSRS scores, GSE scores, and the ratio of medical expenses to monthly income per capita were factors that affected the caregiver burden. CONCLUSIONS: Most family caregivers of elderly patients with femoral neck fracture are subject to a considerable care burden, and social support and self-efficacy intervention are conducive to reducing the caregiver burden.