Mexican-American Caregiving Burden, Acculturation, Familism, and Use of Home Care Services

Thursday, 16 July 2009: 1:45 PM

Janice D. Crist, RN, PhD
College of Nursing, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

Learning Objective 1: explain relationships among Mexican American caregiving burden, acculturation, familism, and home care services use.

Learning Objective 2: describe how understanding the relationships among caregiving burden, acculturation, familism, and use of home care services may affect elder care in at least two cultures.

Purpose: To explore the relationship between objective and subjective burden with home care use, and to examine the relationships among familism, caregiving burden, acculturation, and home care use.

Methods: Mexican American family caregivers (n=140) in the southwestern United States caring for older adults completed  a structured questionnaire consisting of validated scales in Spanish or English. This study used data taken from a cross-sectional study, which tested a theoretical model of possible associations among factors, including caregiving burden, and use of home care services. Results: In the regression model, subjective burden was associated with higher home care use; and when both subjective and objective burden were included, only objective burden was a significant correlate of home care use. Interaction effects between objective and subjective caregiving burden were significantly associated with use of home care services. Familism and acculturation were positively correlated, but neither was significantly associated with caregiving burden.

Conclusion: In the Euro-American dominant culture that embraces individualism more than collectivism, further research is needed in concept development, cultural equivalence of measures, and culturally competent interventions.