Is caregiver burden associated with sex and gender-related characteristics? A large-scale survey study among family caregivers of people with dementia

Table 2 Mediation of gender-related characteristics in the association between sex and perceived care burden

	Effect of female sex on mediator (path a)	Effect of mediator on perceived care burden (path b)	Indirect effect (path ab)	Direct effect (path c’)	BC 95% CI
Mediator	Effect of female sex on mediator (path a)	Effect of mediator on perceived care burden (path b)	Indirect effect (path ab)	Direct effect (path c’)	Lower	Upper
Caregiving intensity (hours per week)	−11.635**	.004**	-.025	.061	-.035	-.016
Caring for a partner (ref. = other relative)	−1.067**	.296**	-.044	.042	-.056	-.034
Working parttime (ref. = retired/unemployed)	1.909**	-.143**	-.030	.056	-.046	-.014
Working full time (ref. = retired/unemployed)	-.736**	-.203**	.013	.099	.006	.022
Primary caregiver (ref. = not primary caregiver)	-.594**	.518**	-.033	.053	-.047	-.021
Difficult to combine daily activities with caregiving tasks (ref. = not or somewhat)	.223*	1.091**	.026	.112	.002	.052

The total effect of (female) sex on perceived care burden was b = .086, SE = .034, p < .05. The outcome of path a for caregiving intensity is the b-coefficient. Other outcomes of path a are log odds. All outcomes of path b are b-coefficients. The indirect effect (path ab) is equal to the difference in the total effect of (female) sex on perceived care burden when correcting for the mediator. The indirect effect is significant when bias-corrected 95% CI does not contain the value 0.000. These confidence intervals are based on 500 resamples
*p < 0.05
**p < 0.001

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