Boonrod Donprapeng. The relationship among caregiving burden, coping resources and quality of life of dependent older adults' caregivers . Master's Degree(Adult Nursing). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2006.
The relationship among caregiving burden, coping resources and quality of life of dependent older adults' caregivers
Abstract:
The objective for this study was to evaluate perceptions of caregivers of dependent
elderly related to caregivers’ burden, coping resources, and quality of life, and to study the
relationship of each variable. The participants in this study were 120 older adult caregivers
who lived in the municipal area in Nakhon Phanom province. The measurements used in the
study were demographic data, coping resources, caregiver burden, social support, and quality
of life questionnaire. The data were evaluated by the SPSS program and used statistical
analysis of Pearson’s Moment Correlation and Spearman’s Rank Correlation.
The results were that most of the older adults’ caregivers were women (84%) and their
relationship with the elderly was son and daughter. The ages of the older adults’ caregivers
were between 20 to 80 years old and the mean age was 56 years old (SD = 10.70). Most of
them were married (60%) with an elementary education level (36%). Their average income
was 5, 974 baht per month (SD = 5287). The length of their care was about 2 months to 108
months with a average of 23.55 month (SD =21.24). About 73 percent of the older adults’
caregivers gave the reason for their care that it was their responsibility. Their perception of
caregiver burdens was in moderate level (Mean = 37.51 , SD = 8.02). They perceived that
more of the social support they received was from families than from friends and healthcare
providers (Mean = 18.65, SD = 2.97; M = 16.36, SD = 3.56; M = 14.5, SD = 3.98
respectively). The caregivers perceived that their quality of life was in moderate level (Mean =
19.06, SD = 2.5).
A hypothesis about factors related to quality of life was tested and it was found that
caregiver burden had a significant negative correlation with quality of life (r = -.22, p<.05) and
social support had a significant positive correlation with quality of life (r = .38, p<.001.)
The study results showed that caregivers’ burdens and social support had a
relationship with quality of life of the dependent older adults’ caregivers. Thus nurses should
encourage caregivers to use appropriate social support, especially from their family members
and to release caregiver’s burden by management to reduce care difficulties and to
appropriately responsed to the dependent older adults.