Cuidadores informales de pacientes psiquiátricos: sobrecarga y calidad de vida

Abstract

People with mental illnesses need extra care, and the informal caregiver who gives this must cope with, in addition to this task, their exposure to overload and the deterioration of their quality of life. The aim of this study was to establish the overload and quality of life in informal caregivers of psychiatric patients. A quantitative descriptive study was conducted where a survey was used to identify socio-demographic characteristics, the Zarit scale to measure the overload and the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire to ascertain the quality of life. The participants were 30 informal caregivers who were responsible for psychiatric patients. It concluded that the caregivers are generally women, mothers of patients with basic educations and without income. Of all the participants, half showed indications of overload; men were more intensely affected. Women are more affected in overall aspects of quality of life: physical health, psychological health, social relationships and environment; both men and women were mostly affected as respects their psychological health.