THE ASSESSMENT OF CAREGIVER BURDEN IN CAREGIVERS OF HEMODIALYSIS PATIENTS

BACKGROUND: Chronic renal failure is among the chronic disease which due to persistence of the disease and long treatment process has various effects on the physiological, psychological, functional ability, lifestyle changes, and independence status of the patient and his family. This may result in the burden feeling in caregivers. According to the importance of the subject, this study is to assess the level of caregiver burden in caregivers of hemodialysis patients. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional analytical descriptive study that was conducted in 2014 on the caregivers of hemodialysis patients. Research instruments were consisted of two parts: demographic data check list and caregiver burden questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS statistical software and Pearson correlation coefficient tests. A p value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: In this study, 72.5% of caregivers reported moderate to severe levels of caregiver burden. A significant relationship was observed between gender of the patient with caregiver burden score of (p=0.031) and type of the income with caregiver burden score of (p=0.000). Caregivers of male patients and patients with inadequate income had a higher caregiver burden score. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that more than half of the caregivers of hemodialysis patients had moderate to severe levels of caregiver burden, therefore it is worthy that health officials and nurses pay special attention to this issue by communicating with these patients and their caregivers.