Family burden among caregivers of people with mental disorders: an analysis of health services

Abstract The objective of this study was to analyze the objective and subjective levels of burden felt by family caregivers of patients who were treated at three institutions: a General Psychosocial Care Center (known as ‘CAPS Geral’), a CAPS center for Alcohol and Drugs (‘CAPS AD’) and the Psychiatric Admissions Unit of a General Hospital (‘UIPHG’) in the municipality of Sobral, Ceara State, Brazil. The study included 385 caregivers, 216 of whom were in the CAPS Geral, 86 in the CAPS AD and 83 in the UPHG, and applied the Family Burden Interview Scale (FBIS-BR). Excel and SPSS were used to organize and analyze the data, and a 5% significance level was applied. The results show that the general objective burden was greater for caregivers at the UIPHG. This group was also found to bear a greater objective burden with regard to caring in day-to-day life. The analysis of the subjective sub-scales showed that caregivers from the UIPHG group were most troubled by supervising problematic behaviors and also by the future and patient’s type of care and medical treatment. Variables including sex and age were associated with burden.

摘要 本研究旨在分析巴西塞阿拉州索布拉尔市三家医疗机构收治患者的家庭照护者所感受到的客观与主观照护负担水平，三家机构分别为：综合社会心理照护中心（General Psychosocial Care Center，俗称CAPS Geral）、酒精与药物依赖社会心理照护中心（CAPS AD）及综合医院精神科收治单元（UIPHG）。本研究共纳入385名照护者，其中216名来自CAPS Geral、86名来自CAPS AD、83名来自UIPHG；研究采用家庭负担访谈量表（Family Burden Interview Scale，FBIS-BR）开展评估，并通过Excel与SPSS对数据进行整理与分析，设定5%的显著性检验水准。结果显示，UIPHG组照护者的总体客观负担更高，且在日常照护相关的客观负担方面同样更为沉重。对主观亚量表的分析表明，UIPHG组照护者因监督患者问题行为、照护未来规划及患者的诊疗方案所承受的困扰最为显著。性别与年龄等变量与照护负担存在显著关联。