Caregivers’ burden and psychiatric morbidity among informal caregivers of older adults: results from a national survey

Care demands increase the level of stress on informal caregivers and affect their mental health. This cross-sectional study aimed to estimate the prevalence of care burden and psychiatric morbidity in informal caregivers of older adults and establish their most significant correlates. Data belonged to the Well-being of the Singapore Elderly study conducted in a general population sample of older adults and family members. Of these, 509 older adults with care needs and their informal caregivers were included in this study. Care burden and psychiatric morbidity were assessed with the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) and the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ), respectively. Caregiver and older adults’ sociodemographic and care-related characteristics were investigated as correlates of ZBI and SRQ cut-offs scores in logistic regression analyses. Additionally, mediation models were tested to explore how each outcome could influence the other in the presence of activities of daily living (ADL) limitation. The study found that 27.9% of informal caregivers of older adults with care needs had experienced care burden, while 7.1% met criteria for psychiatric morbidity. Multivariable analyses indicated caregivers’ ethnicity ( p = 0.017), assistance with a higher number of ADL ( p = 0.003), and the presence of any behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) in older adults ( p < 0.001) were significantly associated with care burden, while assisting with a higher number of ADL ( p = 0.003), older adults having higher care needs ( p = 0.012), and having a paid helper (0 = 0.015) significantly associated with psychiatric morbidity. Care burden exerted strong indirect mediating effect (63.6% variance explained) on the association between ADL assistance and psychiatric morbidity. Care burden and psychiatric morbidity are prevalent among informal caregivers of older adults in Singapore. The study results underscore the relevance of timely interventions to mitigate care burden and reduce psychiatric morbidity among informal caregivers of older adults.