The study considers whether there is a pattern of demographic, caregiver and child characteristics that specifically predict burden among the primary caregivers of children with intellectual disability in a developing country, India. Thirty-one consecutive families with an intellectually disabled child were included. Caregivers and children were measured with a variety of instruments. The putative risk factors significant in the univariate analysis, namely income and expressed emotion, were entered stepwise into a logistic regression model to predict the level of burden. Expressed emotion towards the child with intellectual disability predicted a high level of burden among the caregivers. Age of child and income significant in the univariate analysis were also clinically associated with burden. These results are similar to those obtained in previous studies in industrialized countries and reinforce the importance of focused intervention to modify the family communication style.
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