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Abstract
Burden is a commonly recognised phenomenon in family caring. The Carers Assessment of Difficulties Index (CADI) was developed as a clinical tool for assessing the multiple dimensions of carer burden. It has been used with a number of caring cohorts, but its psychometric properties have not been explored specifically with carers of people with dementia. The 30-item CADI was administered to 232 carers of people with dementia with the aim of assessing the suitability of the frequency scale for clinical and research use with this population. The psychometric properties were examined, including descriptive data, a principal components analysis (PCA), and a reliability analysis on the resultant components. All items were experienced by some participants, but no item was experienced by all. An 8- factor solution from the PCA explained 59% of the variance. Eight subscales were established with good internal consistency. It is concluded that the CADI is suitable for both clinical and research use with carers of people with dementia
Acknowledgements
The Befriending and Costs of Caring (BECCA) project (ISRCTN08130075) is funded by the Health Technologies Assessment (HTA) Programme (project no 99/34/07) granted to Charlesworth (University College London), Reynolds, Poland, Mugford, Harvey, Price, & Shepstone (University of East Anglia). The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Health. The BECCA trial was approved by the Eastern Multi-Regional Ethics Committee (MREC), and by the five Local Ethical Research Committees (LRECs) in Norfolk and Suffolk, and by the Barking and Havering LREC. The BECCA grant holders and anonymous reviewers are thanked for the comments on a draft of this paper, as is Shashi Hirani for statistical advice.
