Strain among the Family Caregivers of Patients with Stroke

Prabhjot Kaur, Ashish Bhalla,

Abstract

Family caregivers are critical partners in the plan and provision of care for patients with various acute and chronic illnesses. Due to the sudden onset and unpredictable outcome of stroke, the caregivers are usually unprepared to deal with its associated problems. The present study aimed to assess the strain among the caregivers of stroke survivors. A total of 53 primary caregivers of the patients with stroke were conveniently selected. Only one member per family was interviewed and their strain of caring for the patients was evaluated by using Modified Caregiver Strain Index. Katz index was used to assess the functional status of the patients. The mean age of patients was 54.94 ± 16.94 with the range of 13-80 years. Most of the patients were male (77.4%). 90.6% of the patients were fully dependent and only 9.5% were partially dependent. 43.4% of the caregivers were son of the patients and nearly half of them (49.1%) were between 21-40 years of age. Majority of the caregivers (73.5%) experienced severe strain of care. More the dependency level of the patients, higher was the level of strain amongst the caregive