Burden Scale (BS) 

This BS is an original version. The 16-item rating scale was developed originally for Thai caregivers by Professors Tinakon & Nahathai Wongpakaran. It has 5 response options in Likert type, from 0 = never to 4 always. The minimum score is 0; maximum 64. The internal consistency was 0.86 (Cronbach’s alpha) when testing among 137 family caregivers of older persons who visited a geriatric psychiatry clinic.

Caregivers’ burden can be interpreted as follow;

0 = none, 1-6 = low, 7-27 = medium, 28-33 = high, and 34-64 = extremely high.

 

Burden Scale 12 (BS-12)

This shorter version (BS-12) was first time introduced at IPA Spain 2019, September.

The Thai version can be downloaded here. --> Burden Scale BS-12 Thai.pdf

The English version is also available here. --> Burden Scale BS-12 Eng.pdf

Scoring and interpretation 

Never=1, Seldom = 2, Sometimes= 3, Often = 4, Always = 5

Min = 12, Max = 60

As BS-12 is arating scale, there is no cut-off score for burden. However, according to a study among caregivers of older people with cerebrovascular disease, the results on burden can be categorized as follow.

17 and lower              No burden or trivial

17-28                           Low-moderate
29-40                           High-moderate
40 and higher              High

Reference:

 

Wongpakaran N, Wongpakaran T. Development of Burden Scale Using Rasch Analysis. Int Psychogeriatr. 2019;31(S1):110.