Stress in Caregivers of Stroke Patients During Rehabilitation: An Observational Study

Introduction: Stroke causes a high burden of death and disability all over the world. The majority of stroke survivors continue to have difficulties, and their families must shoulder a considerable portion of the expenditures of ongoing rehabilitation and long-term care. In India, stroke rehabilitation is still underachieved due to various reasons leading to delay or incomplete recovery of the patients thus adding up more burden on the caregivers. Thus, studying the caregiver burden of stroke rehabilitation will help policymakers tackle this issue faced by our lower economically challenged citizens. Objectives: The objective is to measure the perceived burden on caregivers during stroke rehabilitation. Methods and materials: The observational study was conducted by interviewing the stroke survivors’ caregivers and visiting the physiotherapy OPD using the caregiver burden scale/questionnaire. Results: The study had 76 caregivers, 51.32% were women and 48.68% were men. The average age for caregivers was 42 years and 55 years for patients. The average duration of giving care was six months. The perceived caregiver burden score was low (mean-19.61) suggesting that not all assistance is associated with stress. The correlation of each burden measure with Modified Rankin Scale for disability is significantly correlated (r=0.7, P<0.0001). Further investigation revealed that caregivers had considerably higher levels of stress when the patient needed to exercise, walk or use the restroom. A low yearly income, a higher secondary education, and a small number of family members were shown to be connected with individuals who scored the highest on stress. Conclusion: Based on this study, we conclude that people with low income residing in nuclear families require more support for caregiving during rehabilitation. We recommend that health and welfare policy measures be developed to lessen caregiver burden in order to improve caregivers' post-stroke experiences.