The Care Burden and the Affecting Factors of Individuals Receiving Hemodialysis Treatment

AIM: This study was performed to determine the care burden and the affecting factors of individuals receiving hemodialysis treatment METHOD: The study sample consisted of the caregivers of 235 individuals undergoing hemodialysis treatment. The data were collected by using a survey form of 48 questions and the Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale. The mean, percentage distributions, chi-square, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests, and the Spearman Brown correlation coefficient were used in the statistical evaluation of data. RESULTS: The median care burden scores were high for caregivers who were 60 years of age or older, had a very low or low income, were primary school graduates, developed health issues while caregiving, provided care full-time and had difficulty in meeting the health care costs. The median care burden scores of caregivers who provided care to individuals who were completely dependent for eating and drinking, bathing, getting dressed, walking-strolling, and stair climbing were found to be higher than the group who looked after patients who could administer self-care (p<0.05). Care burden scores were found to be increased with increasing age of caregivers (p<0.05). We also found the care burden score to decrease with increasing disease and treatment duration of HD patients (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, we recommend developing awareness of conditions that increase the care burden of caregivers and to provide the necessary interventions and establish support groups so that these conditions do not have a negative effect on family and social life [TAF Prev Med Bull 2014; 13(2.000): 99-108