Measurement of Caregiver Burden

There is growing recognition that the majority of cancer caregivers will experience some element of burden as a result of the demands of caregiving. As such, identifying caregivers at risk for, and experiencing, burden is necessary to identify and implement appropriate support services to address this distress. Multiple instruments have been used to assess various domains of caregiver burden. Many of these were originally developed for caregivers of patients with neurological disorders, though more recent measures have been developed specifically to address the unique experience of burden among caregivers of patients with cancer. This chapter provides an overview of global and domain-specific measures most frequently used to evaluate the multiple dimensions of cancer caregiver burden and highlights tools intended to capture the unique experience of the burden of caregivers of pediatric patients with cancer.