Validation of the Japanese version of the Burden Scale for Family Caregivers short form

Background.Family members providing daily care for older adults often experience a substantial burden.The Burden Scale for Family Caregivers (BSFC) measures the total burden of caregiving across multiple dimensions and has been translated into multiple languages.This study aimed to develop a Japanese version of the BSFC short form (BSFC-s) and then examine its reliability and validity.Methods.An online survey targeting 6000 older adults aged ≥65 years was conducted.Among these individuals, 339 reported that they currently care for a family member with dementia or ageing problems.After exclusion of respondents whose care recipients showed no cognitive or functional impairments, 247 participants were included in the analysis.Participants were asked to complete the Japanese version of the DSFC-s, Dementia Assessment Sheet for Community-based Integrated Care System 8-items, Dementia Behavior Disturbance Scale, Kessler Distress Scale, and the question "Do you feel that caregiving is a large burden for you?"Results.The Japanese version of the BSFC-s showed high internal consistency (α=0.920).The Cronbach's α remained high if any single item was deleted.Both principal component analysis and factor analysis confirmed that loadings of all items exceeded 0.6 after extraction of any single item, except for one item in factor analysis with a factor loading of 0.587.The Japanese version of the BSFC-s for caregiver burden was correlated with care recipients' cognitive function (r=0.234,p<0.001), activities of daily living (r=0.235,p<0.001), instrumental activities of daily living (r=0.132,p=0.038) and overall scores (r=0.254,p<0.001), and behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (r=0.434,p<0.001), as well as caregiver distress (r=0.317,p<0.001), days of disrupted sleep per week (r=0.430,p<0.001), and overall caregiving burden (r=0.798,p<0.001). Conclusions.The Japanese version of the BSFC-s for caregiver burden demonstrates high reliability and validity.