Abstract
Stroke is a chronic disease requiring patients to be treated for a long period of time. Patients need to been given close and attentive care, and this has an impacton the health and daily lives of caregivers. The aim of this cross-sectional descriptive study was to investigate the quality of life of stroke patient caregivers at Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen Province, Thailand. The subjects were 166 caregivers of all stroke patients who received treatment at Srinagarind Hospital during the period 1 July 10 September, 2011. The research tool was a questionnaire which was intwo parts: Part 1 was designed to collect baseline data about the patients and their caregivers, and Part 2 was the Thai version of the brief WHO quality of life assessment instrument (WHOQOL-BREF-THAI). Data were collected from the patients medical histories and from interviews conducted by the researchers and were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results showed that the overall quality of life of caregivers was at a moderate level with a mean score of92.5. In terms of each component domain of the quality of lifeinstrument, the mean scores for physical health, mental health, social relationships, and the environment were24.1, 21.3, 10.7, and 29.3 points, respectively.Even though the quality of life of caregivers was moderatelyhigh, medical professionals who provide care for stroke patients should assist and support caregivers in various ways by, for example, giving advice on sources of information which are useful to the caregivers themselves and for the physical and mental health care of the patients in. They should also provide assistance to families when they require help in continuing to care for the patients in their own homes.
Highlights
Cerebrovascular disease or stroke (Poungvarin et al, 2011), or what Thai people may refer to as paralysis, is a disease which may cause numbness, weakness or loss of function of any organ or all parts of the body
Stroke is a chronic disease and patients can suffer over a long period of time at all stages: before developing the disease, as the disease progresses, when there are complications, and during the period of disability which results from the disease
Stroke patient caregivers reported a medium level of quality of life overall and in each of the four domains of the quality of life questionnaire
Summary
Cerebrovascular disease or stroke (Poungvarin et al, 2011), or what Thai people may refer to as paralysis, is a disease which may cause numbness, weakness or loss of function of any organ or all parts of the body. Stroke occurs in people of all ages and gender, but mostly in adults over 45 years of age (Department of Disease Control, 2007). Stroke is a chronic disease and patients can suffer over a long period of time at all stages: before developing the disease, as the disease progresses, when there are complications, and during the period of disability which results from the disease. It usually leads to some disability in movement and the performance of household activities, and results in expenses for hospital charges and long-term care, causing considerable impacts on the present economic and social situation (Department of Disease Control, 2007). At Srinagarind Hospital, there were 3,068 stroke outpatients or average 8.41 per day from 2007-2010 (Medical Record and Statistics Section, 2011)
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