Rethinking Burnout in Informal Caregivers: Development and Validation of The Informal Caregiver Burnout Inventory - 10 Item Form
Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: Measurement of informal caregiver burnout is typically achieved by re-purposing scales of occupational burnout. Such approaches have several methodological and theoretical weaknesses. This paper proposes a new tool for measuring caregiver burnout: The Informal Caregiver Burnout Inventory (ICBI). In the first portion of this study, focused feedback was collected from within-field experts and caregivers. Following item revision, an online sample of informal US caregivers of an individual with dementia was collected. Item Response Theory analysis was used to prune low-information or low-consistency items from the scale. The finalized ICBI contained 10 items and showed strong convergent validity, adequately differentiated burnout from depression, and had high internal reliability. The ICBI was compared against two gold-standard measures of occupational burnout and was able to satisfactorily correlate burnout with subjective and objective burden, perceived support, depressive symptoms, and intent to transfer to long-term care services. Auxiliary hypotheses assessed the use of burnout as a moderator and mediator in the relationship between burden and depression and intent to transfer to long-term care services. Burnout was found to significantly moderate the relationship between burden and depression but did not moderate the relationship between burden and intent to transfer. Similarly, burnout partially mediated the relationship between burden and depression but did not mediate intent to transfer. The ICBI is a powerful, lightweight, and accessible measure of burnout for informal caregivers of individuals with dementia. Recommendations for future applications of the ICBI, future avenues of research, and utility of the scale are discussed.
Author: Nicholas James
Language: English
Topic: Nursing care and research
Subfield: Research and Theory
Field: Nursing
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3124750827