Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) do not have significant deficits in their activities of daily living (ADL) and therefore questions exist as to whether carers of patients with MCI experience burden. Caregiver burden (CB) is defined as the adverse consequences of providing care. Studies report 20–30% of caregivers of MCI patient experience a significant degree of burden. CB is associated with poor outcomes for both patients and carers of people with dementia.

The main objective of this study is to look into the association of apathy and caregiver burden in patients with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) and also identify other significant predictors of caregiver burden.

This was a retrospective cross sectional study. We selected 92 consecutive patients diagnosed with aMCI who had a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests and a behaviour rating scale of interest for this study recorded. Nonparametric correlational analyses examined relationships between apathy, behavioural pathology, executive function, anxiety scores, depression scores, instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), cognitive scores and caregiver burden scores. Linear regressions identified predictors of CB.

There was significant relationship between apathy, impairments in IADL, behavioural pathology and CB in aMCI patients. However linear regression analysis showed that apathy was the only significant predictor of CB.

Apathy is highly prevalent and a significant contributor to caregiver burden in amnestic MCI. Improved identification and early interventions to improve apathy symptom is likely alleviate CB and thereby improving the prognosis and QoL of both the patients and caregiver.