Relación del grado de sobrecarga del cuidador y el nivel de función motora gruesa de los niños/as que acuden al Instituto de Parálisis Cerebral del Azuay “IPCA", en el periodo septiembre 2022–febrero 2023, Cuenca - Ecuador

Abstract

It has been proven that caregivers of children with infantile cerebral palsy (ICP) experience greater challenges, since they help the child to carry out their activities of daily living, which leads to the presence of higher medical costs, employment opportunities limited or even in some cases they must leave their jobs to take care of the child. The objective of the study was to determine the relationship between the caregiver's overload and the level of gross motor function of the child with PCI who attend the Institute of Cerebral Palsy of Azuay "IPCA", in the period September 2022 - February 2023. It was developed with a cross-sectional analytical design and the instruments used were the Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale (ZBI) and the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS). The data was tabulated and analyzed in the IBM SPSS 24 system. The information was presented in graphs, simple and cross tables. The sample consisted of 30 caregivers of 30 children with PCI. Regarding the caregivers, 66.6% presented overload; and 90% were women. The average age of the children was 7.6 years and the predominant level of gross motor functionality was IV and V with 66.66% of the total. No statistically significant association was found between gross motor functionality and caregiver overload (p=0.26), so the null hypothesis is affirmed, that is, there is no relationship between these variables.