Family members play a major role in providing caregiving assistance to elderly persons and their families. The effect of stressors on family members caring for a physically or mentally ill person has been referred to as caregiver burden. It is an important concern and will become more so with the inevitable aging of the population. Community health and home health nurses must be able to recognize those factors associated with caregiver burden to effectively render care to their clients and families. This study examined caregiver characteristics and the degree to which these variables affect caregiver burden. Although much research focuses on caregivers of Alzheimers clients, this research utilized a wider variety of client diagnoses to examine caregiver burden of those clients. A sample representing 88 caregivers of elderly chronically ill persons was obtained from various sources in the community. Demographic data about the caregiver was collected. The amount of burden they experienced was recorded using the Burden Interview (Zarit et al., 1986). This study found that there was a positive correlation between increased activities of care performed by the caregiver and caregiver burden. This included both the provision of direct care such as bathing and indirect care such as running errands, preparing meals, and performing housework. It was found that sons, as caregivers, reported significantly less burden than did daughters or other relatives. Community health and home health nurses working with families in a caregiving situation have an opportunity to reduce caregiver burden. This is done by assessment of the caregiving environment and implementation of plans for early intervention.

1. In this study, major themes involving health were closely tied to an affective response of "feeling good" and cognitive appraisal of health status as "being able to function." 2. Rural elderly who participated in the study reported engaging in at least one activity to maintain their health and tended to rely on their own appraisal and resources to manage health problems. 3. Half of the participants indicated a need for services such as blood pressure and diabetic screening, health education classes on diet, cholesterol reduction, hypertension and diabetes management, new therapies in health care, and life management counseling.

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As plantas alimentícias são aquelas que possuem uma ou mais partes (ou derivados destas partes) que podem ser utilizadas diretamente na alimentação humana. A Ora pro-nobis (OPN) é uma planta alimentícia não convencional (PANC), cujas folhas podem ser utilizadas em preparações alimentícias exercendo grande influência na alimentação de populações tradicionais. O consumo de hortaliças frescas tem diminuído em diversas regiões do país, com isso o Ministério da Agricultura Pecuária e Abastecimento do Brasil tem promovido o resgate do cultivo e utilização das hortaliças. A relevância das hortaliças não convencionais se dá devido ao significativo valor nutricional, o que contribui com vitaminas, minerais e proteínas para um maior aporte calórico-proteico da dieta de populações com baixo valor aquisitivo. Diante dessa perspectiva determinou-se a quantidade de proteínas de folhas frescas de Ora-pro-nobis, cultivadas no Viveiro de plantas medicinais do Hospital Santa Marcelina (HSM) de Porto Velho - RO, a fim de explorar o potencial desta planta para fins alimentícios na região norte. Na análise química de 100g de folhas frescas de Ora-pro-nobis, foi encontrado 4,87g de proteína. Hortaliças em geral apresentam até 3g de proteína em sua composição. Análises com OPN em outras regiões do país relataram pouco mais de 3g de proteínas na composição, os resultados divergem de acordo com a região. As folhas de OPN caracterizam uma excelente fonte proteica podendo ser incluída na alimentação da população, independente da renda, de forma acessível e saudável.

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