Methods: This research was conducted on family caregivers of homebound elderly with dementia. Prior to the investigation, consent was obtained from the hospital director, nurses and clinical psychotherapists after explaining the purpose of the research and ethical considerations. The relevant candidates suitable for the subject of this research were recommended by the director of the hospital. Prior to the investigation, ethical considerations were explained to the recommended research subjects, upon which their consent was obtained.For the investigation, researchers were to go to hospitals cooperating in the research, and fill in the corresponding survey form while the research subjects answered the questions. The items of survey includes age and gender of the family caregiver, number of siblings, (family) relationship to the elderly with dementia, educational background, marital status, employment status, income status, religion, thoughts on spiritual subjects, presence/absence of mental disease and dementia in other family members, and the awareness of supporting the elderly parents. The relevancy between the basic attributes of the subject and the awareness on supporting old parents were analyzed through a t-test and one-way analysis of variance.
Results: There were 43 subjects analyzed, within which 14 of them were male and 29 female. The average age was 59.67 years old (standard deviation: 10.528), ranging from 36 to 79 years old. The number of siblings ranged from 0 to 3, with 2 being the most, counting 19 subjects. In terms of theirs relationships, 13 were spouses, 22 were sons or daughters, 4 were sons- or daughters-in-law, and 4 were classified as “other”. For educational background, 24 were junior-high graduates, 19 had education higher than high school. In terms of their marital status, 4 were single, 36 married, 1 divorced, and 2 bereaved. For employment status, 10 were unemployed, 15 worked full-time, 4 part-time, 2 temporary workers, and 12 retired. For income status, 2 felt highly insufficient, 13 insufficient, 23 just right, 3 fairly sufficient, and 2 fully sufficient. In terms of religion, 13 had no particular religious faith, 27 were Buddhists, and 3 were classified as “other.” As for thoughts on spiritual subjects, 36 had no interest, and 7 “had some.” In terms of the presence/absence of mental disease and dementia in other family members, “none” were 36 and 35, “yes” 7 and 8 for each disease, respectively. The relevance between the individual attributes and their support of elderly parents showed a significant difference in only one condition. The condition was for the category of family relationship, between “sons or daughters” and “sons- or daughters-in-law,” in which “sons- or daughters-in-law” was significantly higher.As a result of the split application on the relevancy between the attributes of the caregivers and the supporting of the elderly parents, “sons- and daughters-in-law” were significantly higher than “sons and daughters.” This is possibly because when someone who has high awareness in supporting old parents to begin with gets in the position to nurse, even if they were “in-laws,” they accept the position of caregiver within their position in the family relationships. It may be that even if they are not related by blood, they adopt the role of caregivers because the population has a high awareness of supporting elderly parents.
Conclusion: This research investigated the relevancy between caregivers’ attributes and their awareness of supporting their elderly parents. As a result, the attributes “sons or daughters” and “sons- or daughters-in-law” in the family relationship category were the only attributes that exhibited statistically significant relevancy. The analysis for this research was conducted with a limited amount of data. The relevancy to attributes regarding the family caregivers’ awareness of supporting elderly parents in households with homebound elderly with dementia needs to be ascertained in the future in light of the results of this research.