Care-giving burden and quality of life in diabetic foot patients' care givers

Introduction: The burden of care-giving is defined as the burden sustained by an individual who is giving care to an elderly, chronically ill or incapacitated person; the levels of perception of the burden are known to be affected by various personal and disease-related characteristics. Studies that compare the burden of internal patients’ caregivers with psychiatric patients’ caregivers, reported higher caregiving burden for caregivers of psychiatric patients. In this study, it was aimed to compare the levels of the caregiving burden of those caring for patients with diabetic foot with care-givers of psychotic patients. Caregivers of those with inguinal hernia were designated as the control group to determine the characteristics that are related to the care-giving burden. Methods: The study was comprised of care-givers of 30 hospital in-patients with diabetic foot, 30 in-patients with inguinal hernia, and care givers of 30 patients with a recorded diagnosis of psychotic disorder at Çorum Community Mental Health Centre. The evaluation was made from voluntary completion of the Zarit Burden Interview Form and the Beck Depression, Beck Anxiety, Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) and Short Form-36 (SF-36) scales. Results: The caregivers of the diabetic foot group were found to be mostly non-working females. No difference was found between the burden levels of psychotic and diabetic patient groups but the burden level of caregivers of psychotic patients was determined to be significantly higher than the control group (p<0.001). In comparison with those of the control and psychotic group, the depression and anxiety scales of the diabetic foot group were signficantly high and some points of the quality of life scales were determined to be significantly low. A correlation between the duration of care-giving and the burden was only determined in the diabetic foot group (r=0.421, p=0.020). Conclusion: Care-givers of diabetic foot patients remained more socially isolated. This was probably due to having to live with an elderly person requiring care. For various reasons, care-givers of diabetic foot patients were found to have high levels of anxiety and depression, low quality of life, and burden levels as high as those of the psychotic group. Therefore, in the context of protecting the physical and emotional health of care-givers, careful monitoring and when necessary, supportive treatment would be appropriate.