Relation patient-aidant en hospitalisation à domicile, stratégies d’ajustement et qualité de vie : une étude pilote

Abstract

Objectives: Aims of this study were to compare patients and caregivers’ quality of life (QoL) in homecare, to identify their dyadic coping strategies, and to explore the associations between dyadic coping and caregivers’ psychological QoL.Methods: A total of 11 patient-caregiver dyads were involved in this study. The WHOQOL-BREF and the Dyadic Coping Inventory were used respectively to assess physical and psychological QoL, and dyadic coping strategies of the participants.Results: Patients’ physical QoL was significantly lower than caregivers’ physical QoL. Nonetheless, they were no significant difference between patients’ and caregivers’ psychological QoL. Moreover, patients and caregivers did not cope the same way, caregivers being more helpful and supportive than patients, and patients being more open to communicate their feelings and stress. Finally, caregivers’ psychological QoL seemed to be more associated to the dyadic support they received from the patients than the dyadic support they gave.Conclusion: This study highlights the importance of considering caregivers’ QoL and dyadic coping strategies in the homecare setting. It also emphasizes the necessity of establishing dyadic interventions in order to rebalance support and stress communication within couples.