Determining the effect of home care training on anxiety and depression levels of caregivers

This study was conducted to determine the effect of bed bath training provided to caregivers of patients receiving home care services on the anxiety and depression levels of caregivers. The study was conducted with caregivers of patients registered at the Home Health Unit of Kelkit District State Hospital in Gümüşhane Province between February 1, 2023, and December 31, 2024. The study was conducted as a randomized controlled quasi-experimental study with a pre-test/post-test design, involving a total of 42 home care patients and their caregivers, with 21 in the experimental group and 21 in the control group. Since caregivers indicated in the pre-test that bed baths were the most difficult aspect of home patient care, this was chosen as the subject of the home care training. The Care Provider Information Form, Beck Anxiety Scale, Beck Depression Scale, and Patient Body Bath Care Provider Monitoring Form were used as data collection tools. No intervention was performed on the caregivers in the control group. The SPSS 22 statistical program was used to analyze the data, and a significance level of p<0.05 was accepted. In this study, the difference in the mean scores of the Beck Anxiety and Beck Depression scales between the experimental and control groups was not statistically significant in the pre-test (p>0.05), while in the post-test, the difference between the pre- and post-test/intra-group mean scores was found to be statistically significant in the experimental group (p<0.05), and no significant difference was found in the control group (p>0.05). It was demonstrated that the home care training provided to caregivers reduced their anxiety and depression mean scores. These results indicate that the home care training provided to caregivers is effective in preventing anxiety and depression.