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

Abstract 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 orthopaedic centre in our hospital and their primary caregivers. Data were collected from January 2016 to June 2019. Patients and primary 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 analysing the clinical data of patients and primary 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 primary 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 monthly income were factors that affected the caregiver burden. Conclusions Most primary 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.