• DOI:10.1017/S1041610217001417
• Corpus ID: 24146924

Measurement invariance across educational levels and gender in 12-item Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) on caregivers of people with dementia

@article{Lin2017MeasurementIA,
  title={Measurement invariance across educational levels and gender in 12-item Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) on caregivers of people with dementia},
  author={Chung-Ying Lin and Li-Jung Elizabeth Ku and Amir H. Pakpour},
  journal={International Psychogeriatrics},
  year={2017},
  volume={29},
  pages={1841 - 1848}
}

• Chung-Ying Lin, L. Ku, A. Pakpour
• Published 1 August 2017
• Psychology
• International Psychogeriatrics

ABSTRACT Background: The Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) is a commonly used self-report to assess caregiver burden. A 12-item short form of the ZBI has been developed; however, its measurement invariance has not been examined across some different demographics. It is unclear whether different genders and educational levels of a population interpret the ZBI items similarly. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the measurement invariance of the 12-item ZBI across gender and educational levels in a Taiwanese sample. Methods: Caregivers who had a family member with dementia (n = 270) completed the ZBI through telephone interviews. Three confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) models were conducted: Model 1 was the configural model, Model 2 constrained all factor loadings, Model 3 constrained all factor loadings and item intercepts. Multiple group CFAs and the differential item functioning (DIF) contrast under Rasch analyses were used to detect measurement invariance across males (n = 100) and females (n = 170) and across educational levels of junior high schools and below (n = 86) and senior high schools and above (n = 183). Results: The fit index differences between models supported the measurement invariance across gender and across educational levels (∆ comparative fit index (CFI) = −0.010 and 0.003; ∆ root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = −0.006 to 0.004). No substantial DIF contrast was found across gender and educational levels (value = −0.36 to 0.29). Conclusions: The ZBI is appropriate for combined use and for comparisons in caregivers across gender and different educational levels in Taiwan.