The effect of informing the relatives of patients who had open heart surgery on the patients' quality of life and caregiver burden

"The Effect of Information Provided to Relatives of Patients Undergoing Open Heart Surgery on Caregiver Burden and Patients' Quality of Life", Trakya University, Institute of Health Science, Nursing Department, Doctorate Thesis, Edirne, 2025. Background and Aim: Open heart surgery can lead to a decline in patients' quality of life and an increase in caregiver burden. In this period, it is important for nurses to provide information during the discharge process in order to increase patients' quality of life and reduce caregiver burden. This thesis study was conducted to determine the effect of information provided to caregivers of patients undergoing open heart surgery on patients' quality of life and caregiver burden. Material and Methods: This thesis study, conducted in a randomized controlled single-blind experimental research design, involved 94 patients and their caregivers (study group 47, control group 47) who underwent open heart surgery at Trakya University Hospital Cardiovascular Surgery Department between 6 Oct 2022 and 30 Dec 2023. All patients and their caregivers were evaluated in four stages (pre-discharge, 4th week, 8th week and 12th week after discharge). Unlike the control group caregivers, the study group caregivers were given nursing information and an information booklet before the first evaluation. A Patient Introduction Form, Caregiver Introduction Form, the Multidimensional Quality of Life Scale, the Caregiver Burden Scale and the Caregiver Daily Living Activities Difficulty Level Assessment Questionnaire were used to collect data. In the analysis of data, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Dunn's multiple comparison test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test and chi-square tests were used, and structural equation modelling analysis was used to investigate the causality between the research variables. The significance limit was evaluated as p<0.05. Results: In comparing the mean quality of life scores of the patients between the study group and control group in all four assessments, the total mean quality of life score obtained from the third assessment of the study group was significantly higher than that of the control group, with a significant difference between scores T1-T4 assessments (p<0.05). Comparing the mean caregiver burden scores of the caregivers between the study group and control group in all four assessments, in the study group were significantly lower than the control group (p<0.05); and the difference in scores obtained from the T1-T4 assessments was not statistically significant between the groups (p>0.05). ix Conclusion: The discharge information provided to caregivers of patients undergoing open heart surgery was effective in improving the quality of life of patients and reducing caregiver burden in the short term (first 4 weeks), but had no effect in the long term (8th and 12th weeks). According to these results, we recommend that discharge information be provided to caregivers of patients undergoing open heart surgery and that similar studies be conducted in different populations.