Affiliation:
1. Palliative Medicine, Pain Relief and Palliative Care Unit, Aretaieion Hospital, National & Kapodistrian University of
Athens, School of Medicine, 27 Korinthias St, Athens 115 26, Greece
Abstract
Background:
Caregivers of chronically ill geriatric patients face several problems throughout the disease progression of the patients under their care. This is a prospective cross-sectional study conducted from September 2017 to September 2018 including 130 caregivers of geriatric patients, in Attica Greece.
Objectives
Objectives:
Thisstudy investigates caregivers’ anxiety, perception of changes in their lives and their quality of life.
Methods:
The questionnaires administered were: the revised Bakas Caregiving Outcomes Scale (rBCOS), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and the Linear Analogue Scale Assessment (LASA).
Results:
Influencing factors associated with both rBCOS, STAI and LASA were care timespan and energy levels. Cancer diagnosis seemed to influence only the state anxiety scale and the patient-caregiver relationship onlyrBCOS questionnaire.
Conclusion:
Our findings saw thatunderneath anxiety, low quality of life and perception of changes in lives of caregivers are lying a variety of factors. Significantly factors weretime spend caring for the patient, the status of their relationship, the diagnosis especially in life-threatening and life-limiting diseases and the caregivers’ energy levels that already existed. These results are important in order to comprehend the lives of caregivers and assess with what means could healthcare system and society further assist them.
Publisher
Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.