Caregiver Burden and Associated Factors Among Caregivers of Children and Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

Caregiver Burden and Associated Factors Among Caregivers of Children and Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Caregiver Burden and Associated Factors Among Caregivers of Children and Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Danielle de Carvalho Mendes, Carla Paracampo, Fernando Rocha This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9159124/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Background: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) diagnosed in childhood and adolescence requires continuous management and intensive daily care, often placing substantial demands on caregivers. These demands may contribute to caregiver burden, which can negatively affect both caregiver well-being and patient management. To evaluate caregiving behaviors and identify factors associated with caregiver burden among caregivers of children and adolescents with T1DM. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted in Brazil with 71 caregivers of children and adolescents with T1DM. Participants completed a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI). Descriptive statistics were calculated, and associations between sociodemographic variables and caregiver burden were examined using ordinal logistic regression in R software. Results: Most caregivers were female (81.7%) and parents of the patient (85.9%). Mild to moderate burden was reported by 56.3% of caregivers, while 25.3% presented moderate to severe burden. Higher caregiver burden was significantly associated with longer working hours (31–40 h/week: OR = 10.59, p = 0.026; >40 h/week: OR = 20.91, p = 0.016) and having children (OR = 52.45, p = 0.018). Married or cohabiting caregivers were less likely to experience higher burden compared with single caregivers (OR = 0.08, p = 0.0017). A good or very good caregiver–patient relationship was also associated with lower burden levels (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Caregiver burden among caregivers of children and adolescents with T1DM is influenced by work demands, family structure, and the quality of the caregiver–patient relationship. Strategies aimed at strengthening social and family support systems may help reduce caregiver burden and improve disease management outcomes. Caregivers Caregiver Burden Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Child Adolescent Family Caregivers Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9159124","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":614833989,"identity":"406a44c7-7952-4846-84cd-16bfc339f72d","order_by":0,"name":"Danielle de Carvalho Mendes","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Federal University of Para","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Danielle","middleName":"de Carvalho","lastName":"Mendes","suffix":""},{"id":614833990,"identity":"e28bfbf8-c787-4b36-a849-c7483ec9bf8f","order_by":1,"name":"Carla Paracampo","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Federal University of Para","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Carla","middleName":"","lastName":"Paracampo","suffix":""},{"id":614833991,"identity":"10ac4c55-a4aa-4e71-9870-f563f34eefc0","order_by":2,"name":"Fernando Rocha","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAqklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYHACNgYGGxsG9gYGBmYStKSlMfAcIFHLYRK0mLc3P3vwI+F8Yo908wPmwj1EaJE5c8zcsCfhdmKPzDED5hnPiNAiIZHDJsH743bifokEA2aQ64jSIvkn4Vxij0T6B+K1SPMkHABqySHWFp5jZtIyCcnGPTJnCg7PIEoLe/MzyTcJdrI90u0bHxcQowVJMwMDaRrAWkbBKBgFo2AUYAUAZD4y3j7lXGAAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Federal University of Para","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Fernando","middleName":"","lastName":"Rocha","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-18 12:08:10","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9159124/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9159124/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":105807662,"identity":"9157e9c9-10db-4186-9ab0-6d72d8a8fe94","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-31 10:45:10","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":541948,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9159124/v1_covered_542b3650-e14d-4f58-bcfd-62a3f8e3d0c5.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Caregiver Burden and Associated Factors Among Caregivers of Children and Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Caregivers, Caregiver Burden, Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus, Child, Adolescent, Family Caregivers","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9159124/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9159124/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBackground: \u003c/strong\u003eType 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) diagnosed in childhood and adolescence requires continuous management and intensive daily care, often placing substantial demands on caregivers. These demands may contribute to caregiver burden, which can negatively affect both caregiver well-being and patient management. To evaluate caregiving behaviors and identify factors associated with caregiver burden among caregivers of children and adolescents with T1DM.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMethods: \u003c/strong\u003eA cross-sectional online survey was conducted in Brazil with 71 caregivers of children and adolescents with T1DM. Participants completed a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI). Descriptive statistics were calculated, and associations between sociodemographic variables and caregiver burden were examined using ordinal logistic regression in R software.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eResults: \u003c/strong\u003eMost caregivers were female (81.7%) and parents of the patient (85.9%). Mild to moderate burden was reported by 56.3% of caregivers, while 25.3% presented moderate to severe burden. Higher caregiver burden was significantly associated with longer working hours (31–40 h/week: OR = 10.59, p = 0.026; \u0026gt;40 h/week: OR = 20.91, p = 0.016) and having children (OR = 52.45, p = 0.018). Married or cohabiting caregivers were less likely to experience higher burden compared with single caregivers (OR = 0.08, p = 0.0017). A good or very good caregiver–patient relationship was also associated with lower burden levels (p \u0026lt; 0.001).\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConclusions: \u003c/strong\u003eCaregiver burden among caregivers of children and adolescents with T1DM is influenced by work demands, family structure, and the quality of the caregiver–patient relationship. Strategies aimed at strengthening social and family support systems may help reduce caregiver burden and improve disease management outcomes.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Caregiver Burden and Associated Factors Among Caregivers of Children and Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-03-31 10:44:59","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9159124/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"3f0d1b3e-27d6-4c5f-ad3d-e6c50239fec6","owner":[],"postedDate":"March 31st, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-03-31T10:44:59+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-03-31 10:44:59","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9159124","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9159124","identity":"rs-9159124","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}