Abstract

VELAZQUEZ PEREZ, Yuneisi  and  ESPIN ANDRADE, Margarita. Psychosocial impact and burden in informal caregiver of people suffering terminal chronic renal failure. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2014, vol.40, n.1, pp. 3-17. ISSN 0864-3466.

Objectives: to describe demographic, socioeconomic and psychological characteristics in informal caregivers of patients suffering terminal chronic renal failure and to evaluate the burden according to age, sex, kinship, anxiety and depression.Methods: a cross-sectional and descriptive study of 24 informal caregivers conducted from February to September, 2011. The characterization questionnaire of caregiver, self-evaluative inventories for depression and anxiety, the psychosocial scale of the caregiver and Zarit's burden scale were all applied.Results: caregivers were mostly women aged 40 to 59 years, graduated from high school, patients' wives, non-working, living in the same place, taking full care of patients for more than 5 years for affective reasons. They had information about the disease, no experience as caregivers, suffered nervous breakdowns, osteomuscular problems and headaches and all of them faced medium to high degrees of anxiety and depression. They used problem -and emotion- centered coping strategies. The socioeconomic effects included little spare time, little support received, poor social relationships, economic problems and working difficulties. They experienced negative feelings such as fear, anguish, irritability and loneliness. Almost half of the caregivers showed burden, being more evident in the group younger than 40 years, patients' mothers where the degree of anxiety and depression were high.Conclusions: the care of a patient means heavy burden and impact in the social, psychological, economic and working contexts, and generally for the health status, which might affect the quality of life of both the patient and the caregiver.

Keywords : primary informal caregiver; terminal chronic renal failure; anxiety; depression; burden.