Objective:

to determine the overload of care and its association with the social support network and emotional stress of the primary caregiver of the elderly assisted in home-based service.

Methodology:

quantitative and analytical study performed with 94 seniors and their respective caregivers. For the gathering of the data, instruments of sociodemographic profile and morbidities, Mini Review of the Mental State, index of Katz, and Lawton and Brody scale were applied on the elderly; and on the caregiver, sociodemographic profile instrument, Zarit overload scale, Self-Reporting Questionnaire and the instrument of measurement of the social support network.

Results:

it was found predominance of elderly females, over 80 years of age, married and with schooling between 1 and 4 years. The primary caregivers are women, less than 60 years of age, married, with schooling between 9 and 12 years, kinship daughter and living with the elderly. There was association between the overload of the caregiver and the dependence for instrumental activities of daily life, emotional stress and the domain "social interaction".

Conclusion:

caring for elderly can generate overload when the primary caregiver experiences stress, does not have a social support network and the elderly is dependent; therefore, the health professional needs to devise a plan of care for the duality elderly-family.

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