Burden and Depression among Caregivers of Visually Impaired Patients in a Canadian Population

Abstract

Purpose/Background. This study reports the degree of burden and the proportion at risk for depression among individuals who provide care to visually impaired patients. Study Design. This is clinic-based, cross-sectional survey in a tertiary care hospital. Methods. Caregivers were considered unpaid family members for patients whose sole impairment was visual. Patients were stratified by vision in their better seeing eye into two groups: Group 1 had visual acuity between 6/18 and 6/60 and Group 2 were those who had 6/60 or worse. Burden was evaluated by the Burden Index of Caregivers and the prevalence of being at risk for depression was determined by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale. Results. 236 caregivers of 236 patients were included. Total mean BIC scores were higher in Group 2. Female caregivers, caregivers providing greater hours of care, and caregivers of patients who have not completed vision rehabilitation programs are at higher risk for depression.

Depression Level and Burden of Care Among Family Caregivers of Older People With Physical and Mental Disability in Makkah City KSA

“…Moreover, level of depression was higher among caregivers > 50 years old, and among caregivers with spousal relationship with the disabled client. These findings were in agreed with (Mc Grath et al, 2002;Vitaliano et al, 2003;Masakazu et al, 2014;Khan et al, 2016;Pinquart, 2003) who stated that greater degrees of depression and low ratings of subjective well-being among caregivers are consistently associated with old age of caregiving, a spouse relationship with the clients and being a female who have higher rates of depression than men in the care-giving role.…”

“…The questionnaire was used for measuring the burden of caregivers. Mental disability defines as any form of mental illness according to DSM-V and physical disability includes any form of somatic disorder, mainly neurological and cardiac problems (Khan et al, 2016).…”

“…Results also revealed that there were many factors that may increase risk of depression such as old age of caregivers or being a spouse. The study also showed a heavy burden among caregivers when spending more time with the clients; it is considered additional risk factor for them Khan et al (2016) conducted a study to examine burden and depression among caregivers of visually impaired patients in a Canadian population. It was a clinic-based, cross-sectional survey in a tertiary care hospital.…”

Psychopathological Symptoms in Caregivers of Demented and Nondemented Patients

“…The only manifestation studied was depression, inding that between 3.8% and 16.0% of the caregivers of people with low vision and between 9.2% and 48.0% of the caregivers of totally blind people presented clinically signiicant depressive symptoms [51,52].…”

“…Related variables for depression in caregivers were being a woman, daily hours required for close supervision of the patient, intensity of care-giving, low household income, being the parent of a blind adult child, and being caregivers of patients who have not completed vision rehabilitation programs [51,52].…”