Assessing Caregiver Burden, Tasks, and Heart Rate Using Wearable Sensors: A Longitudinal Study of Informal Caregivers of Persons With Dementia and Older Adults

Purpose In recent years, research on caregivers has highlighted the importance of integrating advanced technologies, such as wearable devices. Furthermore, when investigating the characteristics of persons with dementia (PWD), comparative analyses should be conducted based on the presence or absence of the condition. We aimed to elucidate the relationship between caregivers' subjective burdens, tasks, and heart rate (HR) using wearable sensors to objectively assess the health status of caregivers of PWD and older adults requiring long-term care. Methods The study recruited 21 caregivers of PWDs and older adults requiring long-term care between September 2022 and December 2024 from one hospital, two care plan centers, and visiting nursing stations in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. We collected the participants' sociodemographic data using a questionnaire survey for caregivers. We also measured the caregiver's HR, walking steps, and total sleep time using a wearable sensor. Results Data from 17 participants with no missing values were included in this analysis among the 21 caregivers who provided consent to participate in this study. The demographic variables of the caregivers and care recipients revealed that the caregivers were predominantly female (typical spouses). Most PWDs were diagnosed with atopic disease. No significant correlations were found between the short Japanese version of the Zarit Burden Interview (J-ZBI_8) and the following measures: caregiving years, activities of daily living (ADL), the 14-item Short-Memory Questionnaire (SMQ), caregiving time, the Caregiving Gratification Scale (CGS), total caregiving tasks, sleep time, walking steps, or conversation time. Caregiver burden was significantly associated with caregiving experience and continued caregiving. We observed no significant differences in the average HR for pre- and post-caregiving tasks. Significant differences were found in the maximum pre- and post-caregiving HR. While caregiver burden showed a high-scoring trend and positive perception showed a low-scoring trend, none of the variables differed according to the presence or absence of PWDs. Conclusions These results indicate that subjective appraisal of caregiver burden was not significantly associated with HR change during caregiving tasks. No differences were observed in the behaviors of caregivers with or without dementia. It is necessary to measure subjective and objective appraisals using wearable sensors to better understand caregivers' situations.