Objective

to determinate association between overload degree and sociodemographic characteristics of informal caregivers of older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Material and method

quantitative, descriptive, correlational, cross-sectional study of 83 informal caregivers of older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus, from the northeast sector of Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico. The Zarit Scale was used to measure the overload degree, items regarding to sociodemographic characteristics were included.

Results

the profile of the caregiver with tendency to overload was: woman (81.9%), housewife (47%), with an average age of 40 years, married (53%), daughter of the older adult (72.3%), low schooling (66.1%) and monthly income less than or equal to 6,799 mexican pesos (51.8%), from one to three years as caregiver (54.2%) and dedicating more than 17 hours per day to it (51.8%). The 48.2% of the caregivers showed intense overload, 44.6% absence of overload and 7.2% slight overload. A statistically significant association was found (p=0.02) between the degree of overload and the variables marital status and occupation.

Conclusions

The significant association indicates that marital status and occupation is related to the caregivers perceived overload degree. It is relevant to propose interventions directed to these characteristics in order to reduce intense overload degree, which is a risk for caregiver’s health with this profile, since it is related with greater odds of medical, psychiatric and social morbidity and mortality.

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