Authors: Odunaiya NA, Omosehin R, Ojo JO, Erinle O.
Purpose: Informal caregivers of individuals with spinal cord injury often experience high burden of care which could impact negatively on quality of life. Exploring the impact of the burden of care on the quality of life is required in developing necessary health promotion programs for informal caregivers.
Method: The study utilized a mixed method design of cross-sectional survey and qualitative study. The crosssectional component involved purposively selected 34 consenting informal caregivers of individuals with spinal cord injury from the physiotherapy outpatient clinic and neurosurgery ward of a major tertiary hospital in Nigeria. The Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) questionnaire was used to assess the level of burden of care and 36-short form health survey questionnaire. Seven purposively selected and consenting informal caregivers participated in the focus group discussion. Mann-Whitney test and spearman correlation were used to analyze the quantitative study. The level of significance was set at 0.05. The qualitative data was analyzed using content thematic analysis.
Results: The mean age of participants in this study was 41.26 ± 11.39 years. The cross-sectional study showed that 28 (82.4%) participants had a high level of burden of care. Out of all the domains of quality of life, vitality and mental health had a significant relationship with burden of care. The qualitative study provided further insight into the study. According to the participants, psychological, emotional, social and sexual functioning were affected negatively by the burden of care of individuals with spinal cord injury.
Conclusion: Quality of life of informal caregivers is negatively affected by high burden of care experienced.
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