Assessment of caregiver burden and health status of the attendants whose patients hospitalized in Akdeniz University Hospital

Objective: In the present study, it is aimed to determine the burden of care of the caregiving relatives of inpatients and to evaluate the relationship between the care burden and psychological symptom levels of them. Method: This study is a cross-sectional descriptive study performed at Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine Hospital between January and April 2018. Data collection form, Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale (ZCBS) and Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) was applied to the caregivers by the researcher in order to evaluate sociodemographic and clinical features, to assess the burden of care and to determine the levels of psychological symptoms, respectively. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22.0. Mann Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test and Spearman correlation analysis were used in the comparison and p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result: Three hundred attendants were included in the study. The mean age of the participants was 47.8±13.8 (ranged 18-84) and 67.0% of the participants were female. 41.3% of attendants were the spouse and 36.3% were the child of the patient, 42.8% of them provide care in hospital for more than 2 weeks and 46.7% provide care for the same patient outside the hospital. Emotional commitment is the leading cause of care for the caregiver (77%). 35.9% of the attendants stated that they had problems to meet their basic needs during their stay in the hospital and their both mean ZCBS and BSI levels were significantly higher compared with attendant who did not have problems related with basic needs (p<0.05). Mean values of attendants' Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale and Brief Symptom Inventory were 20.2 and 34.4, respectively. There was a moderately positive correlation (r=0.502) between the scores of ZCBS and BSI levels and it was statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study is the first study to determine the care burden and psychological symptom levels of hospital attendants and to compare the relationship between them. Levels of psychological symptoms increase as the care burden of attendants increases. For the family physicians who provide healthcare to these people, to be aware of health problems and support needs and offering the care they need may help improve the physical and mental health of the attendants. Key Words: Caregiver, Care Burden, Hospital, Life Quality