This study examined the effects of group social support on the reduction of burden and increase in well-being of mothers of developmentally delayed children. The research used a one group pre-post experimental design. The independent variable in the experiment was group social support. Two series of 4-weekly meetings for group social support were conducted by the researcher with the intention of developing a self-help group. The dependent variables were burden and well-being. Well-being was operationalized as physical symptoms and quality of life. Thirty mothers of developmentally delayed infants from the rehabilitation center of a medical center participated in the study. Data were collected by interview and a self-administered questionnaire. The mean age of the subjects was 29.9 years. Changes of the dependent variables between pre and post tests were compared using the t-test. Even though there was a slight improvement in the scores for the dependent variables, they were not statistically significant. The items, "I resent my baby", "I feel angry about my interactions with my baby", "I feel guilty in my relationship with my baby" showed a significant decrease in burden score and were statistically significant. Symptoms of loneliness, constipation, anxiety, restlessness were less and feeling of happiness was greater after participation in the group social support, than on the pretest. The mothers showed emotional instability and frustrations during the group sessions but their reactions in general were positive. Emotional support, stress management and information provided were identified as the most valuable content of the sessions. However, participation was not active due to the mother's denial, delayed acceptance and/or avoidance of their infants' problems. It can be seen that group social support for the mothers with developmentally delayed children should be provided after infancy when the mothers have time to accept their children's conditions and are ready to receive support. The use of comprehensive instruments which measure burden in both families and mothers needs to be developed for future research.

This study was designed and undertaken to identify the degree of burden and depression in family caregivers of patients with stroke and to determine whether burden was directly related to depression. The data were collected from October 23th to November 20th, 1995. The subjects in this study were 80 caregivers, that is, one family member and 80 patients with stroke who were hospitalized in one oriental medicine hospital located in Taejon City. The questionnaires consisted of questions regarding burden(13 item, 6 point scale) and depression(20 item, 4 point scale). Data were analyzed using percentages, means, t-test, ANOVA and Peason-correlation coefficients, done with the SAS program. The results of this study are as follows; 1. The score for family caregiver's burden was higher than the mid level for the 13 items. 2. The score for of family caregiver's depression was relatively low. 3. The relationship between burden and depression showed a significant inverse correlation. 4. In the relationships between total burden and general characteristics of the family caregivers; there were no significant differences. But, in the relationship between objective burden and general characteristics of the family caregivers; age and education had statistically significant differences. That is, the 40's group felt more objective burden than any other age group and the high education group more than the illiterate group. 5. In the relationship between depression and general characteristics of the family caregivers; sex, education and monthly income had statistically significant differences. That is, female caregivers felt more depression than males, and the lower the level of education and the lower the monthly income, the higher the degree of depression. 6. In the relationships between burden and general charateristics of the stroke patients, only subjective burden according to the patients' sex was significantly different. That is, caregivers felt more subjective burden when caring for male patients than for female patients. 7. In the relationships between depression and general charateristics of the stroke patients, only the patients' economic status showed a statistically significant difference. That is, caregivers felt more depression in case of patients' low economic status.

PURPOSE: It was identified that how many homebound bedridden elderlies and their primary caregivers were depressed, and which factors affected the bedridden elderly's depression. METHOD: The subjects were 191 homebound bedridden elderlies and their primary caregivers. The affecting factors were classified into two categories: bedridden elderly and their primary caregiver related factors. Then bedridden elderly's factors were classified demographic and disease-related factors again. The stepwise regression was used to identify significant factors. RESULT: The prevalence of bedridden elderly's and caregiver's depression was 77.8% and 67.0%, respectively. And the model explained 33.3% of variance of bedridden elderly's depression. Cognitively-impaired female elderlies who had depressed caregivers were found to be more depressed. And caregivers who perceived burden were identified to be more depressed. CONCLUSION: It is recommended that the health professionals need to identify bedridden elderlies and caregivers at risk of depression. Especially elderlies who is in poor cognition, those who are female, and those whose caregivers were depressed might be considered carefully in all counseling or follow-up. Also the primary caregivers must be helped to access already available formal and informal support.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the burden, health promotion behavior and health status and to describe the relationship of the burden, health promotion behavior and health status of the family caregivers of intensive care unit patients. METHOD: The subjects were 48 family caregivers of ICU patients in a University Hospital. Data were collected between June, 1 and July, 31, 2000 using structured questionnaires. Research tools used were Suh and Oh's Burden Scale, Revised Walker, Sechrist, and Pender's HPLP(1987) ; Revised Nam's Health State Scale(1965). RESULT: The mean score of burden of family caregiver was 3.01(full score was 5). The mean score of health promotion behavior of family caregiver was 2.52 (full score was 4). And the mean score of health status of family caregiver was 0.68(full score was 1.00). The score of psychological health state was a little higher than the physiological one. In correlational analysis, the burden and the health status of caregivers were reversely correlated . The correlation between the burden and the health promotion behavior, and the health behavior and health status were not significant. CONCLUSION: The more burden caregivers of ICU patients felt, the worse their health status. So nurses need to understand the family caregiver's burden and apply nursing care that can reduce burden, in order to improve the health status of family caregivers.

PURPOSE: This study is used to investigate the correlation among a stroke patient family's health, burden and quality of life.
METHOD
Data was collected from one hundred twenty family care-givers registered at K and H Hospital in Seoul. Questionnaire data was drawn up by personal interviews aided by the staff nurses. The analyses of collected data are based on the rate of 100 percentage to the average, t-test, ANOVA, DMR, Pearson Correlation.
RESULT
(1) The influential factors on physical health proved to be age, sex, academic career, matrimonial status, present occupation, economic situation, the relationship with the patient, the patient-caring term, and the family-formation. The psychological health issues were age, final academic career, matrimonial status, the relation with patient and the family-formation. Burdens were shown to be age, matrimonial status, the relation with patient, and the patient-caring term. The quality of life was determined by age, final academic career, matrimonial status, and the relationship with the patient, the patient-caring term, and the family-formation. (2) The rate of the physical condition was 2.87, the psychological condition 2.43, the sense of burden 3.08, and the quality of life was 2.42. (3) The rate of correlation between the burden and the quality of life was (r=−.547), the psychological health and the burden was (r=−.531), the physical health and the burden was (r=−.263), physical health and quality of life was (r=.301), psychological health, and quality of life was (r=.413).
CONCLUSION
It follows from this study that there is a very close correlation among the stroke patient family's health, the burden, and quality of life. Therefore it is necessary that we should find various nursing intervention ways in order to mitigate the burden of family when caring for the stroke patients.

This was a descriptive study clarifying the factors affecting family caregivers' sense of well-being. This study was conducted with 131 caregivers using structured self-reporting questionnaires and directly interviewing adult patients who had been under treatment in two general hospitals. The hospitals were located in M city from Aug. 10, 2000 until Sep. 2, 2000. The collected data were analyzed using SAS PC+ program, and the data were tested using descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVA, Pearson's Correlation Coefficient, and Stepwise Multiple Regression. The results of this study are as follows; 1) The variables affecting the caregivers' sense of burden were age (F=3.76, p=.0063), education level (F=4.67, p=.0015), monthly income (F=2.49, p=.0466), amount of assistance provided (F=4.19, p=.0037), and the relationship with patient before disease (F=9.49, p=.0001). 2) The variables affecting caregivers' sense of well-being were age (F=9.54, p=.0001), residing with patient (t=11.38, p=.0010), the period of caregiving (F=10.52, p= .0001), education level (F= 2.79, p=.0290), monthly income (F=3.04, p=.0196), and relationship with patient before disease (F= 10.51, p=.0001). Also, all of the variables which showed statistical significance. 3) In viewing the relationship between activities of daily living (ADL) and the senses of burden and well-being, a negative relation- ship between activities of daily living (ADL) and a sense of burden was found (r=-.640, p=.000). However, the relationship between activities of daily living (ADL) and a sense of well-being had a positive correlation (r= .232, p=.008). Also the relationship between the sense of burden and the sense of well-being was revealed to have a negative correlation (r=-.614, p=.000). 4) A sense of burden was the most important indicator to the well-being of the caregivers who took care of stroke patients (R2 =.36). In addition to this, living with the patient (45%), activities of daily living (51%), relationship with patient before disease (53%), and the family's monthly income accounted for 56% of the sense of well-being of the caregivers.

The purpose of this study was to identity the level of burden, social support and quality of life of the subjects. The subjects of this study were 68 mothers of nephrotic syndrome patients whose children were hospitalized in one pediatric ward of the University Hospital in Seoul. The data was collected using questionnaires, and the period of the data collection was from Nov. 15 to Dec. 31, 1999. The instruments used for this study were the Burden Measurement Instrument developed by Montgomery et. al(1985), social support measurement instrument designed Brandt an Weinert(1978) and Quality of life scale designed by Ro,Yoo JA(1988). The data analysis was done by SPSS, t-test, ANOVA and the Pearson correlation coefficient. The results of were as follows. 1. The level of burden showed a mean score of 54.47, the level of social support, a mean score of 86.00 and the level quality of life, a mean score of 140.20. 2. The level of burden differed according to mother's religion, patient's purpose for admission and perceived patient's condition by mothers. 3. The level of social support and the level of quality of life differed according to perceived patient's condition by mothers. 4. There was a negative correlation between burden and social support(r=-.348, p<.001). Also, burden was negatively related with quality of life(r=-3.97, p<.001). Social support was positively related with quality of life(r=.064, p<.001).

The purpose of this study was to describe the perceived burden of the stroke patient's caregiver and related factors to analyze relationships between perceived burden and social supports. A convenient sample of 225 caregivers who take care for a stroke patient at home participated in this study. Caregiver's perceived burden was measured by the objective and subjective burden scale developed by Montgomery (1985). Related factors of burden were studied in terms of the patient's instrumental activties of daily living, cognitive function, caregiver's demographic variables and caregiver's illness intrusiveness. The results were as follows: (1) The mean of objective burden score was 4.5, and subjective burden score was 3.1. These scores show that caregivers perceive moderate level of burden. (2) Caregivers' objective burden was significantly related to caregivers's illness intrusiveness (r=.62), patient's IADL (r=-.33), and patient's cognitive function (r=-.15). The subjective burden was related to the caregiver's illness intrusiveness (r=.29), the patient's IADL (r=.24), and the caregiver's age(r=.23). (3) The percentage of stroke caregivers who perceived physical support was 49.1%. The percentage of those who perceived emotional support was 61.0%, and those who perceived financial support totaled 37.6%. (4) Caregivers who received any type of social supports perceived lower subjective burden, and caregivers who received physical or psychological support perceived lower objective burden. These results emphasized the necessity of a rehabilitation programs for stroke patients and support program for family caregivers.

Since cancer is not easily curable, patients who suffer from cancer may have physical, psychological and spiritual problems for the rest of their lives. Especially when cancer patients do not have much to live for and are placing a burden on their family they will experience more suffering emotionally as much as physically. This study was conducted to provide a basis of data for nursing intervention strategies to minimize a cancer patient`s suffering and to understand the relationship between suffering, burden and the meaning of life in cancer patients. The samples were composed of 160 cancer patients who were inpatients or outpatients of two university hospitals and two general hospitals in Seoul. Data collection were carried out from January, 25, 1999 to February, 26, 1999. The data were analyzed using a SAS program for descriptive statistics, pearson correlations, ANOVA, and Duncan tests. The results were as follows; 1. The scores on the two suffering scale ranged from 132 to 40 with a mean of 87.3(SD 17.5). The mean scores on the burden scale is 28.9(SD 6.9) and the score of the meaning of life ranged from 35 to 51 with a mean of 95.6(SD 18.4). 2. There were significant correlations between the amount of suffering and the magnitude of burden (r=.74, p=.00), the suffering and the meaning of life (r=-.59, p=.00) and the burden and meaning of life (r=-.61, p=.00). 3. In the degree of the suffering, the burden and the meaning of life were two very strong factors, the level of the suffering in cancer patients by age (F=2.64, p=.03) and education level (F=4.16, p=.00). The level of the burden in cancer patients differed by education level (F=4.70, p=.00) and type of cancer (F=2.97, p= .03). Also the level of the meaning of life in cancer patients was different by education level (F=3.55, p=.02). In conclusion, the burden and the meaning of life was identified as important variable that is contributed to reduce the suffering of cancer patients.

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between the burden of family with the mentally ill and professional needs. Data collection period was from June 29, 1998 to July 30, 1998. The subjects for the study was 134 family members of psychiatric in-patients and out-patients in Taejon and Chungnam. The questionnaire developed by OK-KYUNG YANG to measure the family burden and professional needs was used for this study. The tools used for this study were composed of General characteristics(30 items), family burden(43 items), professional needs(26 items). The data was analyzed by using on SPSSWIN program and included percentage, mean, S.D., t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient. The results of the analysis were as follows; The mean score of family burden was 134.26, which is higer than the mean score of the instrument. The mean score of professional need, the family caregiver who supporting of mentally ill patients, was .48 which is lower than the mean score of the instrument. Family burden was statistically correlated with professional needs(gamma=.6139, P<.001). There were statistically differences in family burden for respondent's relation, location of living, most care money giver, substant care money giver. There were statistically significant difference in professional need for family age, marriage status, substant care money giver, information status. The conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that addressing professional needs would contribute to reduce burden of the family caregivers with mentally ill. Therefore, Nursing interventions are needed to reduce family burden.

Chronic illness requiring attention and management during a long period of time puts great burden onto patients, their family and society. For patients with chronic illnesses, providing social support is the most important, and the fundamental support comes from their spouses. Amount and quality of support from spouses seems to differentiated according to the sex of patients. Female patients tend to believe that their spouses are not very supportive. Therefore, the researchers assessed the burden of husbands of female arthritis patients to discover the factors that result in greater burden. Also, they developed a theoretical model of husbands' care for their wives through a qualitative research into husbands' experience.
Method
1: The study material was 650 female arthritis patients registered in an arthritis clinic. The questionnaire about the disease experience of female arthritis patients and the burden of husbands were sent. Returned questionnaires numbered 210(32.3%) and 27 were excluded because of inadequate answers. The remaining 183 questionnaires were analyzed. The mean age of the patients was 51 years and the mean age of spouses was 55 years. The mean marital period was 28 years. The average duration since diagnosis was 9.1 years. Education level was varied from primary school to graduate school, and average income/month was 1,517,300 won.
Method
2: Initial questionnaire studies on the burden of husbands were performed. Among 183 responding husbands, 23 consented to participate for a qualitative research. Data was obtained by direct and telephone interviews. The mean age of participants was 58 years, and the educational level and socioeconomic status also varied.
Result
1. Husbands' burden: The average burden was 57.68 with a range of 6-96. 2. Burden and general characteristics: The husband's burden correlated with the age of the patients, numbers in the family, therapy methods, patient's level of discomfort, patient's disease severity, patient's level of dependence and the husband's understanding of the level of severity. 3. Linear correlation analysis on burden: The husbands' burden is explained in 22.5% by husband's recognition of level of severity and husbands' age. 4. There were four patterns of the burden on husbands: both objectve burden and subjective burden were high(pattern I), both of objectve burden and subjective burden were low(pattern II), objective burden was high but subjective burden was low(pattern III), objective burden was low but subjective burden was high(pattern IV). The pattern was correlated with the family income, educational level of the patients and their husbands, therapy methods, patient's level of discomfort, patient's disease severity, patient's level of dependence and husband's understanding of level of severity. 5. The core category of the caring experience of the husbands with arthritis patients was "companionship". The causal factor was the patients' experience due to symptoms : physical disfigurement, pain, immobility, limitation of house chores, and limitation of social activities. Contextural factors are husbands' identification of housework and husbands' concern about the disease. The mediating factors are economic problems, fear of aging, feeling of limitation and family support. The strategy for interaction is mind control and how to solve emotional stress. The "companionship" resulted from caring activities, participation of household activities, helping patients' to coping with emotional experience. 6. Companionship is established through the process of entering intervention, and caring state of mind. Entering intervention is the phase of participation of therapy and involvement of houseworks. The caring phase consists of decision on therapy, providing therapy, providing direct care, and taking over the household role of wife. Through caring phase, the changing phase set a stage in which husbands consolidate the relationship with their wives, and are reminded of the meaning of marriage. As a result, in changing phase, husbands' companionship is enhanced. In conclusion, nursing care of chronic illnesses should include a family member especially the spouse. All information on disease shoud be provided to patients and whole family member. Strong support should also be provided to overcome difficulties in taking over role of other sex. Then the quality of life of patients and families will be much improved.

Little is known about the impact of family caregiving for the demented elderly in Korea. The purpose of this study was to identify the current state of development of family caregiving research for the demented elderly in Korea and to identify correlates of caregiver or health problems and burdens within the socio-political contexts of Korea. A critical review of 17 family caregivers was carried out. The review revealed that various caregiving impacts and correlates of caregiver burden or health problems have been studied in relation to demented elderly family caregiving. Family caregiving for the demented elderly is a very complex phenomenon and various factors were related to caregiver burden, or their emotional and physical health. Findings from studies reviewed have shown inconsistent, inconclusive, and contradictory results. Furthermore, several conceptual and methodological problems were identified in the studies reviewed: restricted conceptualization, unrepresentative study samples, inadequate sample size, inappropriate study design, absence of comparison groups, inappropriate psychometric properties, and uncontrolled confounding factors. More research, as well as directions for further research, is recommended to identify family caregiving the impact of for the demented elderly, and to clarify the factors that explain results.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the burdent on families who live with an elderly person suffering from senile dementia, and the degree of their depression. There were 400 participants in this study, staying in the Seoul and Kyonggi areas from August, 1, 1997 to February 28, 1998. Among the group, 100 participants took care of their patients at home, and another 300 participants left 100 patients at a day-care center, 100 sanatorium for senile dementia(asylum for helpless elderly people), 100 an infirmary for elderly people. Eventually 242 subjects out of the 400 were selected for the data analysis. The Zarit(1980) tool was employed to measure the degree of burden and Zung's(1965) "Self-Rating Depression Scale" was employed for the data analysis. The data was analyzed, and the percentage, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson's Correlation Coefficient were calculated. The results are as follows. 1. The average degree of burden that care-giving families felt was 49.13, which is somewhat high. 2. The average degree of depression that-giving families felt was 51.95, which is relatively high. 3. The degree of burden was directly affected by the relation with the patient(F=2.48, P<.05), and the socio-economic status of the family(F=5.17, P<.05). It's also affected by the patient's educational status(F=2.17, P<.05). 4. The degree of depression of the family was significantly dependent on sex(t=-2.05, P<.05), age(F=2.99, P<.05), the relationship with the patient(F=3.65, P<.01), socio-economic status(F=7.74, P<.001), occupation(t=2.82, P<.01), health status(F=4.42, P<.01), and the place of residence(F=4.30, P<.01). The patient characteristics was significantly dependent on his/her educational status(F=3.85, P<.01), the period of suffering from senile dementia(F=2.47, P<.05), and smoking habit(F=6.17, P<.001). 5. The relationship between the degree of burden and that of depression reads r=0.43, which is statistically positive correlation in the high significant level. Upon analyzing the entire summation, most care-giver for elderly patients suffering from senile dementia lack time in caring for themselves. They also experience chronic fatigue and mental discomfort caused by the isolation from society, curtailment of certain activities, a sense of responsibility of certain activities, a sense of responsibility for their patients, and limits of their endurance in taking care of their patients over time. In conclusion, this study emphasizes the necessity for the following propositions : 1. In order to measure the degree of burden that Korean care-giving families undergo, a new tool must be developed on the basis of Korean culture. 2. An educational program based on the demands that care-giving families undergo must e developed, and its clinical effect also has to be examined.

The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of the supportive nursing intervention program on Burden and Quality of Life in Mothers of Children with Nephrotic Sybdrome. The data were collected from a group of 67 mothers of nephrotic syndrome patients(34 in the intervention group, 33 in the control group) from July 1, 1998 to Dec, 30, 1988, Measurements were burden and quality of life from both groups at pre and post intervention. The supportive nursing educational program consists of individual lectures and discussion at the individual level. Listed are the summarized result: 1. The intervention group had a lower level of burden (p<0.05) than the control group intervention. 2. The level of quality of life was not significant during the intervention. According to this study a developed supportive musing intervention program is effective for reduction of the burden. For future research, it is necessary that experiments concerning quality of life in mothers of children with nephrotic syndrome, be conducted.

The main purpose of this study was to identify the effects of group social support and individual social support on the reduction of burden and improvement in family functioning of families with asthmatic children. The design of this study was a randomized pre-posttest quasi-experimental design to compare the two experimental groups. The theoretical framework for this study was derived from the study of burden in family caregivers by Suh and Oh(1993) based on the main effect model of social support theories. The data were collected from February 12, 1998 to May 29, 1998 at the pediatric out patient department of a university hospital located in Suwon city. The sample consisted of 39 family members who were identified as families with asthmatic children, Eighteen subjects were randomly assigned to the group social support group and 21 were assigned to the individual social support group. Group and individual social support members were seen for 60 to 90 minutes, four times over one to three weeks. The instruments used in this study were the Burden Scale developed by Suh and Oh(1993), the Visual Analogue Scale, and the Family Adaptability Cohesion Evaluation Scale(FACES-III) developed by Olson, Portner, and Lavee(1985). The collected data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney test, x2-test, Wilcoxon sign rank test, t-test, ANOVA(Scheff), pearson correlation coefficient, multiple regression, and social support process and content analysis. The results are as follow ; 1. There was no significant difference before the experimental treatment among the subjects in the group social support group and individual social support group for general characteristics, burden, or family functioning. 2. Hypothesis 1 ; "There will be a greater reduction on the burden score of the group social support group compared to the individual social support group" was not statistically significant(U=174.5, p=.683). The burden scores showed a significant decrease after participation in social support as compared to before participation for both groups. However there was a tendency for more reduction in the burden scores for the group social support than for individual social support. 3. Hypothesis 2 ; "There will be a greater improvement in the family functioning scores for the group social support group compared to the individual social support group" was not statistically significant(U=153.0, p=.309). There was a tendency toward improvement in the family functioning scores of the group social support as compared to that of the individual social support. 4. According to the length of the treatment period, families with asthmatic children displayed affirmative responses, and the families set up a self-help group of mothers with asthmatic children n order to share their experiences, to get information and to solve their problems. In conclusion, it was found that group social support was the more effective nursing intervention for reducing burden and for improving family functioning of families with asthmatic children.

This study was conducted to identity the degree of burden and social support perceived by mothers of nephrotic syndrome patients. Also, relations between burden and social support were investigated to provide basis data for their family health and nursing intervention. The study subjects were mothers of nephrotic syndrome patients whose children were hospitalized in 2 Pediatric wards of University Hospital in Seoul and 1 in Pusan from Jun. 1, 1998 to Jun. 30, 1998. Burden measurement instrument for this study was designed by the researcher and its basis in one developed by Montgomery et al.(1985) and the reliability was .78. Also. P.R.Q. Part I II, by Brandt and Weinert(1981) was used as social support measurement instrument and the reliability .71. The data analysis was done by SPSS, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation. The result were as follows. 1. Burden felt by mothers shows an average value of 60.82 (Maximum 86, Standard deviation 1.244). 2. Of the mother characteristics, the score of burden was high in case of no religion and low income. Of the patient characteristics, the score burden ranked as high MCNS, doing oral therapy, injection therapy at the same time and negative perceived patients condition. 3. The mean score of support was 77.54(Maximum 96, Standard deviation 1.096). 4. The main supporters were husband(the highest), brother, sister, health speciality and the subject expressed the highest satisfaction toward supporters in chronic disease. 5. Of the patient characteristics, the higher age group and the elder group showed high support. Also, positive perceived patients condition, high support. 6. The relationship between burden and social support is not significant. In conclusion to the above study, the researcher suggests. 1. The Qualitative research to investigate influential factors on burden of family of nephrotic syndrome patients in needed.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate the effects of a support group intervention on the burden of primary family caregivers of stroke patients. METHOD: A nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used. The subjects were 36 primary family caregivers of stroke patients [experimental(N=18) and control(N=18) groups] in a neurosurgery ward of a university hospital. The experimental group members participated in six sessions of a support group intervention for two weeks and the degree of their caregiving burden was evaluated. Data was analyzed by Chi-square tests, t-tests, and paired t-tests using SPSS 10.0. RESULT: The experimental group had a significantly lower total burden score (t=2.061, p= .047)and sub-scales of emotional(t=-3.319, p= .002), time-dependent(t=-2.045, p= .049) and developmental(t=-2.656, p= .012) burden scores than the control group, while no significant differences were found in physical, social or financial burden scores between the two groups. Within the experimental group, there was a significant decrease in physical(t=2.507, p= .023), emotional(t=4.754, p= .000), social(t=2.932, p= .009), time- dependent(t=5.015, p= .000) and developmental(t=7.541, p= .000) burden scores but not the financial burden score. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that a support group intervention can be utilized as an effective nursing program to reduce the burden of primary family caregivers of stroke patients.