Abstract
Objective
To analyze the indicators and factors associated with burden in informal caregivers of patients undergoing radiotherapy.
Methods
Analytical cross-sectional study conducted with 209 informal caregivers of patients undergoing radiotherapy. Age over 18 years old, having a family, affective, coexistence or cohabitation relationship and providing care for at least 30 days were considered as inclusion criteria. Caregivers who were absent during the interview for accompanying the patient were excluded, thereby resulting in incomplete completion of collection instruments. Data were collected with use of forms for characterization of caregivers and patients and assessment of the care demand. The burden was measured by means of the Informal Caregiver Burden Assessment Questionnaire. The Student’s t-test was used to compare the mean burden scores, and the ANOVA, Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman’s correlation coefficient were used to assess the relationships between variables.
Results
The mean scores showed moderate burden with a greater impact on the “implications for personal life”, “emotional burden” and “reactions to demands” domains. The determining factors for the highest level were associated with the care demand, degree of kinship and the patients’ clinical and therapeutic conditions, including age, number of prescribed radiotherapy sessions, presence of comorbidities and physical symptoms.
Conclusion
Informal care in radiotherapy generated physical, emotional and social burden on caregivers and had implications for personal life and emotional instabilities. Aspects related to the care demand and the characteristics of patients were decisive for the increase in global scores.
Neoplasms; Radiotherapy; Caregivers; Workload