Characteristics Predicting a High Caregiver Burden in Patients with Vascular Cognitive Impairment: Using the Apriori Algorithm to Delineate the Caring Scenario

Kai-Ming Jhang, 1,* Wen-Fu Wang, 1, 2,* Hsin-Fang Chang, 3,* Ming-Che Chang, 4 Hsin-Hung Wu 3, 5, 6 1Department of Neurology, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan; 2Department of Holistic Wellness, Ming Dao University, Changhua, Taiwan; 3Department of Business Administration, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua, Taiwan; 4Department of Nuclear Medicine, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan; 5Department of M-Commerce and Multimedia Applications, Asia University, Taichung City, Taiwan; 6Faculty of Education, State University of Malang, Malang, East Java, Indonesia*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Hsin-Hung Wu Email hhwu@cc.ncue.edu.twPurpose: The aim of this study was to elucidate the factors and caring scenarios associated with a moderate to severe care burden in the caregivers of patients with vascular cognitive impairment (VCI).Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study included 158 patients with VCI and their caregivers who were managed by the dementia collaborative care team at Changhua Christian Hospital, Taiwan. Gender, age, clinical dementia rating, walking ability, behavioral symptoms, and psychological symptoms were the variables from the patients with VCI. Age, marital status, relation to the VCI patient, education, employment status, help of key activities, type of primary care, frequency of care, ZBI (Zarit burden interview) caregiving burden, and caregiver’s mood were the evaluated variables for the caregivers. The Apriori algorithm was used to identify the attributes that resulted in different caregiving burdens from a comprehensive viewpoint of both VCI patients and their caregivers.Results: A total of 1193 rules were identified with 1134 rules belonging to caregivers with a mild to moderate burden and 59 rules belonging to caregivers with a moderate to severe burden. Seven general rules were created based on a summary of these 59 rules. The results showed that an employed female caregiver who was taking care of her husband alone ...