The effect of personality characteristics of caregivers of stroke patients on caregiving burden and burnout levels

The study was conducted descriptively to determine the impact of personality traits of individuals giving care to stroke patients, on their care burden and burnout levels. Target population of the study consisted of patient relatives giving care to stroke patients, who applied to Bursa Cekirge Public Hospital Palliative Care Center and Neurology Clinic between August-October 2019. Sample of the study consisted of 90 voluntary patient relatives giving care to stroke patients, who applied to the aforementioned clinics. Study data were collected using a data collection form prepared by the researchers, Care Burden Scale, Burnout Scale and a 10-item personality scale via face-to-face interviews with caregivers. Statistical analyses were conducted using the IBM SPSS Statistics 23 statistical analysis program. In order to determine whether the data were normally distributed or not, the Shapiro-Wilk test was used. While normally distributed variables were given as mean±standard deviation, those that were not normally distributed were given as median (minimum-maximum). The data that were not normally distributed were compared between the two independent groups using the Mann-Whitney U test. In case there were more than two groups, the Kruskal-Wallis test was used and in case there was a significance, the paired comparisons were performed with the Mann-Whitney U test. Categorical variables were given with n and percentage values. The significance level was accepted to be α=0,05. In the study, it was concluded that personality traits affected care burden and burnout levels. It was found that care burden score was positively and significantly correlated with amenability and emotional balance scores, which are the personality traits subscales. It was also found that burnout score was positively and significantly correlated with emotional balance and responsibility scores, which are the personality traits subscales.