Effect of caregiver burden on subjective well-being among caregivers of older patients with multiple chronic conditions in Chinese rural areas

Abstract

Background:Rural caregivers of older patients with multiple chronic conditions bear a substantial caregiver burden. Self-efficacy and family support may mediate the relationship between caregiver burden and subjective well-being; however, their specific pathways remain unclear.
Objective:To examine the mediating roles of self-efficacy and family support in the association between caregiver burden and subjective well-being among caregivers of older patients with multiple chronic conditions in rural China.
Study design:A cross-sectional survey.
Methods:Between August and September 2022, face-to-face structured questionnaires were administered to caregivers. Data were collected on demographics, clinical information, caregiver burden, subjective well-being, self-efficacy, and family support. Hayes's PROCESS macro was used to conduct parallel mediation analysis.
Results:Caregiver burden was negatively correlated with subjective well-being, self-efficacy, and family support (all P < 0.05). Subjective well-being was positively correlated with self-efficacy (r = 0.300, P < 0.01) and family support (r = 0.388, P < 0.01). Self-efficacy was also positively correlated with family support (r = 0.258, P < 0.01). Mediation analysis indicated that self-efficacy and family support were parallel mediators of the relationship between caregiver burden and subjective well-being, accounting for 26.15 % and 73.85 % of the total indirect effect, respectively.
Conclusions:Self-efficacy and family support significantly mediated the relationship between caregiver burden and subjective well-being. Interventions aimed at reducing caregiver burden, enhancing self-efficacy, and strengthening family support may improve the subjective well-being of caregivers of patients with multiple chronic conditions.

Keywords

Caregiver burden / Family support / Multiple chronic conditions / Self-efficacy / Well-being

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Ziyue Yang: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Lingrui Zhao: Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Writing - original draft. Louisa Lam: Writing-review & editing. Myo Nyein Aung: Writing - review & editing. Fengye Sun: Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing - review & editing. Yufang Guo: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. All the authors have read and approved the final version of this manuscript.

Ethics approval

The study followed the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki, as revised in 2013, and was approved by the Shandong University School of Nursing and Rehabilitation Ethics Committee (approval number 2022-R-125). All participants signed informed consent forms after being informed of the survey objectives, procedures, confidentiality and their right to withdraw. This manuscript confirms that participants provided consent for the use and publication of their data.

Funding information

This study was funded by Shandong University, as part of the undergraduate innovation and entrepreneurship training program.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgments

None.

Data availability

The dataset utilized and/or analyzed in this study is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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