Impact of caregiver’s burden of peritoneal dialysis patients

Abstract

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) requires the support of a main caregiver, who can be subjected to an intense workload, and is susceptible to physical, psychological and social alterations. To determine the prevalence of burden in primary informal caregivers of PD patients, the associated factors and their impact on patients at 12 months. 180 caregivers were included, with an average age of 42.8 ± 13.9 years, 73.3% were women. The Zarit survey was applied to assess the degree of caregiver overload. We identified that the majority of caregivers do not present overload; however, there is a greater burden in patients with continuous ambulatory PD (CAPD), with higher overall mortality in the group with severe burden (p < 0.05). Linear regression showed an association between hours of patient care, occupation, dialysis modality, and schooling with the presence of caregiver overload (p < 0.05). The burden presented by the caregiver is similar to that reported in the literature. CAPD patients whose family member has severe burden show higher global mortality at 12 months.