Table 2.
Characteristics of caregivers with and without change in caregiver burden
| Variable | Caregivers not increased caregiver burden n = 832 |
Caregivers increased caregiver burden n = 1,088 |
p |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gender (%) | |||
| Male | 46.5 | 50.5 | 0.090 |
| Female | 53.5 | 49.5 | |
| Age (%) | |||
| 15–39 years | 13.0 | 28.1 | < 0.001 |
| 40–59 years | 38.5 | 38.9 | |
| 60–79 years | 48.6 | 33.0 | |
| Education (%) | |||
| High school educated or lower | 32.3 | 25.0 | < 0.001 |
| College educated or higher | 67.7 | 75.0 | |
| Marital status (%) | |||
| Married | 33.2 | 40.3 | 0.001 |
| Not married | 66.8 | 59.7 | |
| Household income (%) | |||
| ≤ 2.9 million yen | 17.8 | 18.8 | 0.142 |
| 3.0–6.9 million yen | 38.7 | 36.3 | |
| ≥ 7.0 million yen | 23.7 | 27.6 | |
| Unknown/undisclosed | 19.8 | 17.3 | |
| Current job situation (%) | |||
| Working | 57.8 | 63.3 | 0.014 |
| Not working | 42.2 | 36.7 | |
| Disease treatment (%) | |||
| Yes | 31.9 | 31.3 | 0.812 |
| No | 68.1 | 68.7 | |
| Caregiving role (%) | |||
| Primary caregiver | 31.4 | 38.5 | 0.001 |
| Second caregiver | 68.6 | 61.5 | |
| Caregiver burden (Zarit-8), Mean (SD) | 6.6 (6.3) | 15.0 (7.5) | < 0.001 |
| The number of hours spent caring per day (%) |
|||
| Short | 74.8 | 51.8 | < 0.001 |
| Middle | 16.8 | 35.8 | |
| Long | 8.4 | 12.3 | |
| The relationship to the care-receiver (%) | |||
| Children/children-in-law | 77.8 | 75.4 | 0.041 |
| Spouse | 9.5 | 8.0 | |
| Other relative | 12.7 | 16.6 | |
| The care-receiver's care level (%) | |||
| Not qualified/unknown | 16.9 | 20.8 | 0.065 |
| Support level 1–2 | 17.3 | 18.6 | |
| Care need level 1–2 | 31.7 | 31.3 | |
| Care need level 3–5 | 34.0 | 29.4 | |
| The Kessler 6 Scale (K6), Mean (SD) | 3.5 (5.4) | 8.5 (6.4) | < 0.001 |
SD: standard deviation.
COVID-19: coronavirus disease 2019.
J-ZBI-8: the 8-item Japanese short version of the Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview.
p values were calculated using chi-square and independent t-tests.