Investigation of the relationship between daily living activity performance and emotional status and body awareness in caregivers of individuals with neurological problems: A comparative study

The aim of this study is to analyses the relationship between activities of daily living performance, emotional state and body awareness of individuals who care for individuals with neurological problems and to compare them with individuals who do not provide care. 60 patients between the ages of 18-65 (51.05±12.88 years) receiving outpatient or inpatient treatment and 60 caregivers of these patients (47.65±12.11 years) participated in the study. 60 non-caregiving individuals with a similar age range (39.41±15.46 years) were included in the control group. Bakas Caregiving Scale was used to determine the caregiving burden of caregivers. Caregivers and non-caregivers were compared using the Body Awareness Scale (BAS), Functional Independence Measurement (FIM), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Modified Lawton-Brody Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale (MLB/IADL). The average care burden of caregivers is -12.20±5.73. When all evaluation parameters were taken into account, it was determined that caregivers were more affected than non-caregivers (p0.05). While a positive significant relationship was found between caregivers' FIM and MLB/IADL and BAS (p0.05), a negative significant relationship was found with BDI scores (p0.05). The results of this study showed that caring for individuals with neurological diseases increases the burden of care. In addition, it was determined that decreased body awareness score and increased emotional burden negatively affected caregivers' activities of daily living performance. The results of our study prove that caregivers should be included in the occupational therapy intervention program. Key Words: Caregiving, care burden, activities of daily living, body awareness, emosyonel status