Abstract

LI-QUIROGA, Mey-Ling; ALIPAZAGA-PEREZ, Pedro; OSADA, Jorge  and  LEON-JIMENEZ, Franco. Emotional caregiver burden among family caregivers of schizophrenia patients at a public hospital from Lambayeque-Peru. Rev Neuropsiquiatr [online]. 2015, vol.78, n.4, pp.232-239. ISSN 0034-8597.

Objectives: To describe the level of emotional caregiver burden in family caregivers of persons with schizophrenia treated at the Hospital Regional Las Mercedes (HRDLM) during October-December 2013. Material and Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study with exploratory analysis. All family caregivers of schizophrenic persons attending outpatient clinic during the specified period were invited to participate. The Zarit Caregiver Overload Scale was applied to the participants, which was validated by the researchers for these individuals and was applied after informed consent. Results:122familycaretakers were included of which 68.85% (84/122) were women and 40.16%(49/122)were the persons’ mothers. We found that a high number of family caregivershave emotional caregiver burden (72.95%-89/122-), especially a low level burden(69.66% -62/89-). Emotional caregiver burden was frequent in spouse caregivers(94.12% -16/17- ), fathers (94.44%-17/18-) and without formal instruction(90.00%-9/10-). Conclusions: There is a large proportion ofcaregiverburden in our family caregivers. Results suggest the need for interventions that allow to identify and control this problem, specially focused on spouses, parents and less educated caregivers.

Keywords : Caregivers; schizophrenia; family; quality of life; psychological stress.

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