English

Abstract

BACKGROUND The study aims to assess the caregiver burden of primary caregivers of people with spinal cord injury by using Caregiver Burden Scale (CBS), find the association between caregiver burden and selected socio-demographic variables and find the association between caregiver burden and characteristics of individuals with spinal cord injury. METHODS A cross sectional study was conducted from June 2019 to December 2019 among primary caregivers of patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) residing in selected communities of Calicut district, Kerala state, India. Purposive sampling technique was used to select samples. Caregiver burden was assessed by Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview. Characteristics of caregivers and individuals with spinal cord injury were collected by structured interview. RESULTS Study was conducted among 100 primary caregivers of individuals with spinal cord injury. The mean score of caregiver burden is 45.3 with SD 11.4. Out of the total sample, 40 % of the caregivers suffered from mild to moderate burden, another 40 % suffered from moderate to severe burden and the remaining 20 % of them suffered from severe caregiver burden. The study also found an association between caregiver burden score with characteristics of caregivers such as age (p = 0.038), gender (p = 0.02) and marital status (p = 0.048). Study also found an association between the gender of patient (p = 0.001) and level of injury (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Majority of the sample showed moderate to severe level of caregiver burden. The study helped to find out multiple factors affecting caregiver burden. Health care system can identify these factors and consider them while planning and implementing different programs for individuals with SCI. Measures can be considered to alleviate caregiver burden by considering the findings of the current study and the community can plan different rehabilitative services which can reduce the burden of caregivers. KEY WORDS Caregiver Burden, Spinal Cord Injury, Primary Caregivers