Background¡G Ventilator-dependent patients have a great and far-reaching impact on families. Their primary caregivers, who are usually the ventilator-dependent patients¡¦ families, have played important roles during the caring process. Those caregivers are burdened with a lot of responsibility and pressure. It is crucial to find out how to assist the caregivers within selected methods of caring and to provide them with suitable needs in order to reduce their psychological burden. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the related factors and to compare the burden and the needs of the primary caregivers in respiratory care ward and home care on long-term ventilator-dependent patients. Design¡G The survey adopts cross-sectional and purposive sampling by using a structured questionnaire to collect information. Both Burden and Needs Questionnaire¡¦s reliability is respectively 0.923 and 0.943; their KMO is 0.828 and 0.829 ; their Expert Validity (CVI) is 0.88 and 0.91. The questionnaire has reached the ideal value of reliability and validity. The sampling subjects are from respiratory care ward and home care centers in southern Taiwan. Total 260 out of 280 questionnaires are returned (the response rate has reached 92.9%) and there are 241 valid samples. The questionnaires are used for data collection and are divided into four sections; ¡§patient basic information¡¨ , ¡§family basic information¡¨, ¡§caregiver burden scale¡¨, and ¡§caregiver need scale ¡¨. The collected data is analyzed with descriptive statistics-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson¡¦s correlation and multiple regressions by using SPSS Windows version 12.0. Result¡G (1) Patients from Home-care centre are normally younger in comparison with the patients from respiratory care wards; their average usage of mechanical ventilator is 30.98 month longer; they tend to have more conscious and tracheotomy patients. According to the demography, these two groups of the patients have a significant difference. (2) The average age of primary home care and respiratory care ward caregivers is 50¡ã52; most of them are female; most of the care givers are the patients¡¦ children. (3) "Physiological burdens" and "physiological needs" of home care centers caregivers are greater than the caregivers in respiratory care ward. They have reached a significant difference in statistic. (4) The primary caregivers have a declining health, and their workload and demands are increasing. (5) There is a significant positive correlation between the primary caregivers¡¦ burden and needs. (6) Base on the numbers of admitting to the ICU, the hospital and the current health status of the primary caregivers; the workload is predictable. Conclusion¡G Hopefully the result of this study can provide the Government to formulate a long-term-care insurance. Focus on providing the services to different needs for the caregivers; reduce the caregivers¡¦ burden on caring the mechanical ventilator patients. Also, to provide health care workers and respiratory therapists to implement on transferring patients to respiratory care ward and to offer further health education for the primary caregivers of home care centers.