The Alzheimer's patient assistance relationship is a morally painful experience, most frequently discussed in terms of “burden” in the literature, especially as professionals and institutional intermediaries are underdeveloped in Tunisia.

It is intended to assess the level of burden among caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease and to search factors associated with a high level of burden.

This is a retrospective descriptive study. Patients were recruited from neurology department of Razi hospital, which were hospitalised between the months of December 2012 and March 2013. The burden was measured using the Zarit inventory.

Thirty patients were included. The majority female, most caregivers are descendants (60%), then, daughters in law (33%), and finally the spouses (23%). 80% of caregivers lived in the same home as patients. Caregivers were asked about all the items of the grid Zarit. The average burden in our sample is 59.9 + 16 3. We observed that 33% have absent to light burden (score <21), 10% have a light to moderate burden (between 21 and 40), 36, 66% have moderate to severe burden (between 41 and 60) and 50% have a severe burden (>60), according to the classification proposed by Zarit. Sex, kinship and cohabitation with the patient were not associated with a higher burden.

The study of factors correlated with high levels of burden aims at finding ways of intervention and support to fight against the isolation of caregivers and the occurrence of anxiodepressive complications.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.