ABSTRACT Aim To analyse the extent of caregiver burden and psychological stress experienced by caregivers of liver transplant recipients, the relationship between caregiver burden and psychological distress, and whether gender moderates this relationship. Design This was a descriptive correlational cross‐sectional study. Methods Convenience sampling was performed to recruit participants between February and September 2020. The Chinese version of the “Zarit Burden Interview Family Caregiver Burden Scale” was used to measure caregiving burden, and the Chinese version of the “Depression Anxiety Stress Scales–21” was used to measure psychological distress. Finally, the PROCESS moderation model was used to analyse the moderating effect of gender. Results Ninety‐one caregivers participated in this study. Their median age was 50.88 years (interquartile range IQR = 18), and 73 patients were women (80.2%). Caregiver burden scores ranged from 0 to 40 (median = 20, IQR = 11), whereas depression scores ranged from 0 to 20 (median = 14.00, IQR = 8), anxiety scores from 0 to 28 (median = 14.00, IQR = 6), and stress scores from 0 to 34 (median = 14.00, IQR = 6). Male caregivers experienced a lower caregiver burden than their female counterparts, whereas female caregivers experienced higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress than male caregivers. Further, gender's moderating effect on caregiver burden was significant for depression (coefficient = 0.480, p = 0.021) and stress (coefficient = 0.429, p = 0.040). With every 1‐point increase in caregiver burden, depression increased by 0.48, and stress increased by 0.429 in men compared to women. Finally, the correlation between caregiver burden and anxiety did not differ between genders. Conclusions The results of this study indicate that although women have a higher care burden and psychological distress when the care burden increases, the psychological distress experienced by men increases more than that experienced by women. Hence, healthcare professionals should be sensitive to the different demands of caregivers of different genders. Clinical Relevance The impact of caregiver burden on psychological distress differed by gender. Therefore, healthcare professionals should provide gender‐friendly care. The priority and suitability of transplant care tasks for family caregivers should be tuned according to the different demands of care to reduce care burden, provide skills readiness, enhance stress relaxation skills, and seek resources.
Liao et al. (Thu,) studied this question.