Care-Giver Burden in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Specific Learning Disability- A Comparative Study

Abstract

Aims and objectives: To assess and compare the burden of care in caregivers of patients with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Specic Learning Disability To assess and compare psychiatric morbidities and caregiver burden in caregivers of patients with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Specic Learning Disability. To study the burden with relation to socio-demographic characteristics Material and method: Participants were divided into 2 study group of 40 participants each. Socio-demographic data for both care-givers and patients were collected via a semi-structured interview involving the care-givers of patients who attended the hospital's outpatient department. The care-giver burden will be measured with the Family Burden Interview Schedule (FBIS) and Psychiatric morbidities were measured by General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28). Result: The study was carried out to compare the burden of care and psychiatric. In our study socio-demographic characteristics like marital status, family income, and locality showed statistically signicant differences between the two groups. Psychiatric morbidities were statistically signicantly higher in caregivers of ASD in all four domains i.e, somatic symptoms, anxiety/insomnia, social dysfunction and depression. We found the burden of care to be statistically signicantly higher in the ASD group on all domains except Financial burden, namely Disruption of routine family activities, Disruption of family leisure, Disruption of family interactions, Effect on physical health and Effect on mental health. conclusion: In our study we have found both burden of care and psychiatric morbidity to be higher in caregivers of ASD children as compared to caregivers of SLD children. This was consistent with our hypothesis that burden of care has strong positive correlation with psychiatric morbidity in caregiver.