Caregiver Burden, Social Support, and Depressive Symptoms Among Caregivers of Patients With Heart Failure

Background: Examining caregiver burden subgroups in family caregivers of patients with heart failure may help identify individuals at elevated risk. Also, although caregiver burden is known to be associated with social support and depressive symptoms, how these factors interact to produce depressive symptoms is unclear. Purpose: This study was designed to investigate the distinct subgroups of caregiver burden using latent profile analysis as well as the mediating role of social support in the relationship between caregiver burden profiles and depressive symptoms among heart failure family caregivers. Methods: Two hundred nine family caregivers (age ≥18 years) of older adults with heart failure were enrolled as participants. Caregiver burden, social support, and depressive symptoms were measured using self-administered questionnaires. Data were collected at the outpatient cardiology clinics of two university hospitals in Seoul, South Korea, between July 2022 and May 2023. Latent profile and mediation analyses were conducted using Mplus and PROCESS macro models. Results: The caregiver burden profiles were categorized into two groups: “lower burden” (78.9%) and “higher burden” (21.1%). The caregiver burden domain “emotional well-being” registered the highest scores in both lower and higher burden groups. Social support was shown to significantly mediate the relationship between higher caregiver burden (reference=lower caregiver burden group) and depressive symptoms. Conclusions: The findings indicate that promoting social support can buffer the negative impact of higher caregiver burden on depressive symptoms in family caregivers of older adults with heart failure. Health care professionals should develop interventions to strengthen social support to prevent depressive symptoms of family caregivers experiencing high caregiver burden.