Comparison of caregiver responses to English and Hebrew language versions of an abridged Zarit Burden Interview

Abstract

The provision of informal care to infirm family members is of central importance to social gerontology; concomitantly, caregiver burden is a topic of considerable research interest. To this end, psychometrically sound instruments are required to advance cross-national research. The current study builds upon previous research examining the reliability and validity of responses to a brief Hebrew language version of the Zarit Burden Interview. For this study, factorial validity of responses to this instrument is examined relative to a representative English Canadian sample of caregivers. Invariance analyses comparing English and Hebrew responses support a 2-factor model of burden (role strain, personal strain); furthermore, invariance analyses comparing responses indicate that caregivers interpret and respond to the majority of items in a consistent manner. This finding suggests reliable translation of items from English to Hebrew. Caregiver burden is discussed in the context of changing demographics and the growing prevalence of disorders affecting older adults.

Keywords:

• caregiver burden
• informal care
• linguistic invariance
• test reliability
• test validity

Acknowledgments

Support for this study was provided by the German Israeli Science Foundation-Young Investigator Award received by Dr Ayalon. The Canadian Study of Health and Aging (CSHA) was funded by the Seniors' Independence Research Program, through the National Health Research and Development Program (NHRDP) of Health Canada (Project No. 6606-3954-MC[S]). Additional funding was provided by Pfizer Canada Incorporated through the Medical Research Council/Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Canada Health Activity Program, the NHRDP (Project No. 6603-1417-302 [R]), Bayer Incorporated, the British Columbia Health Research Foundation (BCHRF Projects No. 38 [93-2] & No. 34 [96-1]). The CSHA was coordinated through the University of Ottawa and the Division of Aging and Seniors, Health Canada.

Notes

1. Item invariance analyses cannot be undertaken for the two items initially fixed to 1.0 for purposes of scaling and statistical identification required for CFA models with latent variables (Byrne, 2004).