Factors Influencing Health Status of Caregivers of Postoperative Neurosurgical Patients
Abstract
Background: Becoming caregivers effects individuals' lives and health especially when people have to adapt to the role of caregivers of severely ill patients, such as neurosurgical patients.
Objective: This research was a descriptive study, based on transition theory, aiming to analyze the factors influencing the health status of caregivers of postoperative neurosurgical patients.
Materials and Methods: The participants were 110 primary caregivers taking care of postoperative neurosurgical patients at home, at least 3 weeks after hospital discharge. Data collection was conducted at the Neurosurgical Out Patient Department, Bhumibol Adulyadej Hospital, from January to February of 2002, using the Demographic Questionnaire, Ex tended Glasgow Outcome Scale, Short Sense of Competence Questionnaire, Personal Resource Questionnaire 85 Part 2, Denyes & Filday Dependent- Care Agency Instrument, Appraisal of Caregiving Scale, and Laffrey Health Conception Scale. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics, Pearson's Product Moment Correlation, and Stepwise Multiple Regression were employed.
Results: The majority of caregivers were female (80%) whose ages ranged from 41 to 60 years (Mean= 47.23, SD = 18.08). More than half of the caregivers were married (73.6%), and 29.1 per cent of them were housewives or housekeepers. Nearly half of the participants had sufficient income with saving money (47.3%), while 32.7 % of them had sufficient income without saving money and 20% of them had insufficient income with debts. The most common relationship of caregiver to the patient was that of spouse (42.7%), and most caregivers had secondary caregivers to help them take care of their patients (72.7%), About thirty-six percent of primary caregivers had some disease or illness before becoming caregivers, while 62.7 percent developed physical symptoms, diseases or illness during caregiving. The results indicated that capability of caregiver and social support had a positive relationship to the health status of caregivers (p <0.001), but stress and sense of competence, had a negative relationship to the health status of caregivers (p <0.001 and 0.05). The Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis showed that capability of caregiver, together with stress, could explain the variation of health status of caregivers of postoperative neurosurgical patients by 27.7 percent.
Conclusion: Nurses and other health care providers should encourage promoting health status of caregivers by establishing a training program that focuses on the capability of caregivers and knowledge and skills training in regard to caregiving, providing a stress reduction program, and supplementing the supportive resources in caregiving to reduce the burden of caregivers, which will lead caregivers to good health.
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