Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 April 2013
In the last few decades, a number of researchers have attempted to identify the effects of paid care services on alleviating the sense of burden of family care-givers, especially care-givers to people with dementia. However, few researchers have considered the possibility that paid care services alleviate the sense of burden only among those care-givers who possess specific characteristics. Without considering this point, the impact of paid care services would be averaged over an entire sample, and one might overlook the effects on these specific care-givers. With this background, this study examines the relationship between family care-givers' sense of burden and the amount of paid care services in Japan and identifies groups of care-givers among whom these services are significantly associated with a lesser sense of burden. The sense of burden of 339 family care-givers to older care recipients with dementia was measured using a modified version of the Caregiver Burden Inventory. In order to examine their association with the amount of paid care services received, logistic regression analysis was individually applied to groups of care-givers who exhibit specific characteristics. The results suggested that paid care services alleviated two out of five components of burden, provided the groups to which the analyses are applied are appropriately defined. In particular, two subsets of the entire sample, comprising young care-givers aged 49 or below, and including male care-givers, indicated that their overall sense of social and emotional burden were alleviated by the use of paid care services. The practical implications for policy makers are discussed.