Abstract: Objectives: To determine the shame among family caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's Disease and its relationship with caregiver burden. Methods: The convenience sampling method was used to select 141 patients and their caregivers who were investigated by the questionnaires distributed to them. Results: The shame score of family caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's Disease was (48.30±9.54). According to one-way ANOVA analysis, significant differences were observed regarding to comparison of the severity of Alzheimer's Disease, caregivers' age, the caregiver-patient relationship and time of care (P<0.05). In line with correlation analysis, disease-related shame was strongly correlated with caregiver burden. Disease-related shame was analyzed through hierarchical regression analysis, which suggested disease-related shame could account for 21.0% of the variance in dependently after general information was controlled. Conclusion: It was indicated that family caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's Disease maintained a relatively medium to high sense of shame which was strongly correlated with caregiver burden. Thus targeted and customized psychological support and interventions should be offered to caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's Disease by medical staff in order to reduce caregiver's sense of shame and improve their mental health, which can reduce their burden as caregivers.

Key words: Alzheimer's Disease; caregiver; disease-related shame; caregiver burden