The activities and quality of life of caregivers of patients with chronic diseases

Abstract

Introduction: With the increase of the elderly population in our country and, simultaneously, the increasing morbidity rate of chronic-degenerative disease in general, the number of people seeking for attendance at day care centers and hospitals has also increased. Most of the time, these people are also dependent, when they return home, on the care provided by family members: the caregivers. To prevent and treat the problems caused by the stress factors among caregivers contribute to reduce or delay their hospitalization. In addition, improvement on the caregivers' quality of life could allow them to better help the patients. In this context, this research tried to understand the reality of the lives of caregivers of chronically ill patients, and with this knowledge, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention proposal. Objective: The main objective of this intervention was to attenuate the stress conditions of care activities. Method: The research used interviews with caregivers; these interviews were taped and later transcribed to analyze the content of answers and elaborate the intervention plan, which, in this case, was a course. The course consisted of informative aspects on the disease and daily life activities, as well as the formative aspect on self-knowledge. A quality of life instrument named Caregiver Burden Scale was also applied. After the intervention (course), the Scale was once more applied to verify the data and check for efficacy. Conclusion: Results show the importance of the intervention on the caregivers' quality of life.