Abstract

• Today, more chronically ill and handicapped people are being cared for at home by a family mem ber caregiver. The task of caring for a family member may mean that the caregiver has less time and money and more work which may result in increased fatigue and symptoms of illness. This study was done to examine the well being of family caregivers. Fifty three family caregivers were interviewed. Concepts were measured using existing tools and in eluded: Burden(25 item 5 point scale), Social sup port (21 item 7 point scale), Health status defined by a symptom cheeklist (48 item 5 point scale), and Well-being defined by a quality of life scale (14 item 7 point scale) and caregiving activities. Data collection was done by interview and Q-sort. Social support and well-being were positively correlated as were symptoms and burden. Symptoms and burden were negatively correlated with social support and well being. Items on the quality of life scale had a mean score range from 3.09 to 4.96. Quality of life related to income was lowest (3.09) but the desire to use more money for the patient was rated 2.90 on the burden scale where the item means ranged from 0.73 to 3.55. The high mean of 3. 55 was for obligation to give care and the low 0.73 was for not feeling that this was helping the patient. Mean scores for symptoms ranged from 0.26 to 2.15 with the 2.15 being for "worry about all the things that have to be done." Over half of the patients were dependent for help with some activities of daily living. The caregivers reported doing an average of 3.10 out of five patient care activities ineluding bathing (77.4 %), shampooing (67.9%), and washing face and hands (49.1%), and 3.74 out of seven home maintenance activities including laundry (98.1%). cooking (83.0%), and arranging bed ding( 75. 5%). The caregivers reported their spouse as one of the main sources of social support, including in times of loneliness and anger. The mean score for loneliness as burden was 2.15 and ranked fourth and 31(58.5%) of the sample reported being lonely recently and not being satisfied with the support received. Similarly anger caused by the patient was given a mean score of 2.13. and anger was reported to have been present recently by 38 (71.7%) of the sample and satis faction with the support given was low. Having someone to help deal with anger ranked twelfth out of 21 items on the social support scale and had a mean score of 3.98 (range 3.49 to 5.98). Spouses were reported as a major source of social support but the fact that 50% of the caregivers were caring for a spouse, may account for the quality of this source of social support having been affected. These caregivers faced the same problems as others at the same stage of life, but because of the situation, there was a strain on their resources, particularly financial and social. In conclusion it was found that burden is correlated negatively to quality of life and positively to symptoms, but in this sample, symptoms and but den were scored relatively low. Does this indicate that the caregivers accept caregiving as part of their destiny and accept the quality of their lives with burden and symptoms just being a part of caregiving? Does the correlation between the bur den and symptoms indicate they are a measure of the same phenomenon or that the sample was of a more mobile, less burdened group of caregivers? Quality of life was the one variable that was signf cant in explaining the varience on burden. Further study is needed to validate the conclusions found in this study but they indicate a need for nurses to approach these caregivers with a plan tailored to each individual situation and to give consideration to interventions directed at improving quality of life and expanding social support networks for those caring for spouses.

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