Relationship between Burden of Caring for Older Adult Patients with Chronic Diseases and Family Caregivers Health Status

Family caregivers play an essential role in caring for older adults with chronicdiseases. People with multiple chronic diseases are responsible for the greatest burden ontheir caregivers, which in turn will affect significantly their life. Objective: To determine therelationship between burden of caring for older adult patients with chronic diseases andfamily caregivers health status. Settings: The study was carried out in the outpatient clinicsof Mansoura General Hospital, Mansoura University Specialized Medical Hospital,Mansoura Main University Hospital, Mansoura New General Hospital and MansouraUniversity Oncology center. Subjects: The study subjects included 186 older adult patientsaged 60 years and more, diagnosed with one or more chronic diseases and their familycaregivers aged more than 18 years. Tools: Data was collected using four tools, sociodemographic and clinical data structured interview schedule, Katz and Akpom Scale, theZarit Burden Interview and the Short Form-36 Health Survey. Results: Nearly three quarter(74.7%) of the caregivers reported mild to moderate caregiving burden and 21.5% of themhad severe caregiving burden. A lower mean total score of the physical and mental healthstatus was found among family caregivers. Conclusion: Caregivers burden increases byincreasing dependency of the older adult patients. A positive direct relationship was foundbetween caregivers burden and their mental health status. Also, between their physical andmental health status. Recommendations: Develop a guideline to help caregivers of patientswith chronic diseases to care for their patients at home. This will help them to cope with theburden of caring and manage stress associated with it. Also, teach caregivers about theavailable community services, such as respite care and adult day care centers which may helpto decrease caregivers stress and burden.