OTCohortOccupational therapy international2022

Relationship between Activities of Daily Living of Home-Based Rehabilitation Users and Caregiver Burden-Induced Depression: A Retrospective Study.

Takuro Ohashi, Takaaki Fujita, Yui Togashi and 5 others

PMID 35821709

WHAT IT FOUND

Caregiver burden was highest when patients had poor bladder control.

A Barthel Index score of 5 or less for bladder control identified 90% of caregivers with high burden. This simple indicator may help occupational therapists spot caregivers at risk for depression.

Key findings

01A Barthel Index score of 5 or less for bladder control was the only ADL item with high diagnostic accuracy for caregiver burden, identifying 90% of high-burden caregivers.

02Caregivers reported high burden in 85.7% of cases when the patient had a bladder control score of 5 or less and was 78 years old or younger.

03Bladder control scores correlated strongly with caregiver burden, with a Spearman rank correlation coefficient of -0.48.

STILL TO COME

How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs

Read the rest of this summary

You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.

Already have one?

What it does not show

The study had a very small sample size of only 50 pairs. It was retrospective and observational, so it cannot prove that bladder control causes caregiver burden. Many factors known to affect caregiver burden, such as financial stress, living arrangements, and caregiver health, were not analyzed. The cutoff value was derived from the same small dataset used to test it, which may overestimate its accuracy.

The easy way to misread this

Do not assume that improving bladder control alone will reduce caregiver burden. This study only shows an association in a small group and did not test any intervention.

Read it on PubMed →