Abstract
Multiple illness and injury classes can cause a functional disability of the elderly, or the right to seek help from another person. Caregiving can be generated without the caregiver functions, leading to burden. to describe the sociodemographic and care profile of caregivers of the elderly and to analyze the factors associated with excessive stress regarding care. This is a cross-sectional study, part of the SABE (Health, well-being and aging) Study, carried out in the city of São Paulo in 2010, with 362 caregivers. The excessive stress associated with care was evaluated by the Zarit Scale, and the load was found to be less than 24 points and the presence of burden was considered, with scores ≥ 24 points. Hierarchical Logistic Regression was used to analyze the factors associated with the stress of family caregivers. Most of the caregivers were family members (91.5%), being female (75.4%), mean age 53.9 years (SD ± 15.5), married (65.3%), lived in the same household with the elderly (68.2%). One-third of them presented burden, which was associated with age (OR = 1.04, p = 0.001), family dysfunction (OR = 5.60, p = 0.000), continuous care (OR = 78, p = 0.030). The data reveal the need to maintain their needs and support to caregivers, especially their relatives and their sources of life and their debts.
Highlights
Multiple illness and injury classes can cause a functional disability of the elderly, or the right to seek help from another person
The excessive stress associated with care was evaluated by the Zarit Scale, and the load was found to be less than 24 points and the presence of burden was considered, with scores ≥ 24 points
The excessive stress associated with care was only verified among family caregivers (n = 331); the 31 non-family caregivers being excluded from the analysis of the factors associated with this tension
Summary
Multiple illness and injury classes can cause a functional disability of the elderly, or the right to seek help from another person. Either by a family agreement or by exclusive lack of options, a family member is “elected” as an ideal, natural, necessary, desirable or possible caregiver, even if this person does not know, has not been consulted or is not that person’s choice. This creates personal, family, and even professional conflicts if they perform other dayto-day job functions. Such circumstances can create a state of prolonged stress, leading the caregiver to ignore their own needs and neglect self-care, resulting in illness or even premature death. Evidence suggests that carers’ burden may lead to neglect of the person being taken care of[8,9]
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