Caregiver Burden and Sleep Quality in Dependent People’s Family Caregivers

• Main Authors: Miguel A. Simón, Ana M. Bueno, Patricia Otero, Vanessa Blanco, Fernando L. Vázquez
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-07-01
• Series: Journal of Clinical Medicine
• Subjects: caregiver burden; sleep quality; family caregivers; long-term care
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/8/7/1072

This study examined the relationship between caregiver burden and sleep quality in dependent people&#8217;s family caregivers. A cross-sectional study was carried out with 201 dependent people&#8217;s family caregivers and 92 non-caregivers controls. Participants completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI), and an ad-hoc questionnaire to collect sociodemographic data. Based on CBI scores, subjects were categorized into three groups: family caregivers with high levels of perceived burden, family caregivers with low and medium levels of perceived burden and non-caregiver controls. There were significant differences among the groups in the PSQI total (F = 40.39; <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001), subjective sleep quality (F = 25.55; <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001), sleep latency (F = 16.99; <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001), sleep disturbances (F = 14.90; <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001), use of sleep medications (F = 6.94; <i>p</i> &lt; 0.01) and daytime dysfunction (F = 20.12; <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001). These differences were found only between the caregivers with high levels of perceived burden and the other two groups (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). There were also significant differences between the groups in sleep duration (F = 18.34; <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001) and habitual sleep efficiency (F = 24.24; <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001). In these dependent measures, the differences were found in all the pairs examined (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). These results suggest that caregiver burden is related to sleep quality, so that caregivers with greater perceived burden have a worse sleep quality.