Caregiver burden and quality of life study of primary caregivers of children living continuously with medical device support

Caregiver Burden And Quality Of Life Study Of Primary Caregivers Of Children Living Continuously With Medical Device Support Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the caregiver burden and quality of life of the primary caregivers of children living with the support of medical devices who can be accessed by the research assistants of Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine. Methods: A retrospective, survey-based, observational study was conducted by face-to-face interviews with a questionnaire set. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 25.0. In comparison, in the comparison of more than 2 groups, One Way Anova test was used when the normality and homogeneity of variance conditions were provided, the Kruskal Wallis Test was used if at least one of them was not provided. In the comparison of the 2 groups, independent T test was used for normality and homogeneity conditions of variance were provided, and Mann Whitney U test was used when it was not provided. Pearson correlation test was used for correlation calculation. The subgroup of SF-36 quality of life measures, comparisons were made with an average of Turkey. Results: Of the 100 participants, 63 were female and 37 were male. 61 of the participants were mother of the care given and 33 of them were father.. 79 of the participants were under 40 years of age. Of the participants, 26 had at least 1 chronic disease and 32 had at least one mental illness. 62 of the participants have been providing caregiving for more than 3 years, and among 64 participants, more than 3 hours have been actively engaged in caregiving. 75 of the participants did not benefit from home care services, and 48 of the participants were positive about the care of the home caregiver. Conclusions: It was observed that the quality of life decreased when the caregiving burden increased. Factors that increase caregiver burden have been found as female gender, increased age, low income level, having chronic illness, having mental illness, number of children, time of care and daily active care. Keywords: Caregiver, burden of care, quality of life.