The Assessment of Caregiver Burden in Caregivers of Hemodialysis Patients

Abstract

Background:Chronic renal failure is among the chronic disease which due to persistence of the disease and long treatment process has various effects on the physiological, psychological, functional ability, lifestyle changes, and independence status of the patient and his family. This may result in the burden feeling in caregivers. According to the importance of the subject, this study is to assess the level of caregiver burden in caregivers of hemodialysis patients.Methods:This is a cross-sectional analytical descriptive study that was conducted in 2014 on the caregivers of hemodialysis patients. Research instruments were consisted of two parts: demographic data check list and caregiver burden questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS statistical software and Pearson correlation coefficient tests. A p value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results:In this study, 72.5% of caregivers reported moderate to severe levels of caregiver burden. A significant relationship was observed between gender of the patient with caregiver burden score of (p=0.031) and type of the income with caregiver burden score of (p=0.000). Caregivers of male patients and patients with inadequate income had a higher caregiver burden score.Conclusions:Our results showed that more than half of the caregivers of hemodialysis patients had moderate to severe levels of caregiver burden, therefore it is worthy that health officials and nurses pay special attention to this issue by communicating with these patients and their caregivers.

Caregiver Burden and Social Support in Mothers with β-Thalassemia Children

“…Caregiver burden, by definition, refers to a high level of stress that may be experienced by people who are caring for another person (usually a family member) with some kind of illness. For example, a person caring for someone with a chronic illness may experience such stressors as financial strain, managing the person's symptoms, dealing with crises, the loss of friends, or the loss of intimacy (Mashayekhi et al, 2015). In our knowledge, there was no available information on social support and caregiver's burden among parents of β-thalassemia major children.…”

Experience of the waiting area as perceived by haemodialysis patients and family carers

“…Patients diagnosed with end‐stage renal disease (ESRD) visit haemodialysis facilities for the remainder of their lives unless they undergo a kidney transplant; family carers frequently accompany the patient for treatment 3 days a week and on each occasion spend 3–4 hr in a waiting area. The patients and family carers undergo considerably higher stress and have less flexibility in family adaptability than healthy individuals and their families (Jiang et al., ; Mashayekhi, Pilevarzadeh, & Rafati, ; Pereira et al., ). Particularly strong family ties characterize Korean culture; hence, dependency on family members in times of illness is high.…”

Caregivers of Patients on Haemodialysis

“…Mashayekhi et al [14] found that 72.5% of the caregivers had average to severe burden. Caregivers who had low quality of life had high rates of burden and high scores of depression [11].…”

“…Caregivers are involved in patients' care and assistance during haemodialysis in order to help them adapt and efectively manage their treatment [14]. They help patients with their daily activities, household tasks, and personal care, such as bathing and dressing, while they undertake responsibility for technical health procedures in dialysis [15].…”

“…It relects the permanent diiculty, stress, and negative experiences derived from the provision of care to the patient. Burden includes all the changes and diiculties in caregivers' life caused by patients' treatment [14].…”