Longitudinal Outcomes Among Family Caregivers of Power Mobility Users

Objective To examine the change over 1 year in the burden, wheelchair skills, social support, social participation, and mental health of family caregivers providing assistance to older adult powered wheelchair users. Design Longitudinal study. Setting Community. Participants Participants (N=35) included family caregivers (mean age ± SD=63.7±10.2y) who provided at least 2 hours of general care per week for a powered wheelchair user. Intervention Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures The Power Mobility Caregiver Assistive Technology Outcome Measure (frequency of care and subjective burden), the Wheelchair Skills Test Questionnaire for caregivers (wheelchair skills), the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List-6 (social support), the Late-Life Function and Disability Instrument (social participation), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (mental health). Measures were taken at baseline, 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and a linear mixed model was used to assess changes over time in the outcomes. Results The results showed that the caregivers helped on average with 3 powered wheelchair-related activities and 10 other caregiving activities. They also experienced moderate subjective burden and social participation and were within the normal range for depression and anxiety. Moreover, those outcomes remained stable over the 1-year study period. However, the wheelchair skills scores showed significant changes over time, as the scores improved during the first 6 months of the study. Conclusion Given that previous research indicated that subjective burden tends to decline over time among caregivers, the findings of stability in this study may reflect increasing needs among this population of caregivers, who may benefit from additional support and interventions. This would need further consideration.