ABSTRACT
Background: Children with disabilities are nutritionally vulnerable due to feeding difficulties associated with disabilities. Aim & Objective: To investigate factors associated with feeding difficulties in children with/without disabilities. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional analytical study was undertaken in the rural field practice area of a medical college in Karnataka. Methods and Material: Data collected on 145 children with disability and 145 neighbors/sibling/ classmates of the child using a pretested semi-structured questionnaire was analyzed using SPSS 20.0 Statistical analysis: Difficulties faced by feeding children with/without disabilities were expressed in percentages. Chi-square test was used to determine the association between feeding time, challenges encountered, and need for assistance p (<0.05). Results: The mothers mostly assisted feeding. Significant differences in need for support among children with disabilities 19 (13.5%) and without disabilities 3(2.1%) during meals and time taken to feed were seen. The most common difficulty was the improper position 13(9.0%) among children with disabilities. Conclusions: Mother is the significant person involved in feeding children with & without disabilities. Help in feeding, improper position of the child, vomiting tendency while feeding was more common with children with disabilities than without disabilities.
ABSTRACT
Background: Census 2011 estimated 104 million elderly in India. Unprecedented demand for informal caregivers of elderly has resulted in physical, emotional and economic difficulties called caregiver strain. Aim & Objective: To determine the association between levels of strain among informal caregivers and the dependency levels of the elderly. Material & Methods: A cross-sectional study during January -March 2018 was conducted in the health centres attached to field practice areas of a tertiary care hospital. Data collection was done using a pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire after informed consent from elderly and informal caregivers meeting the inclusion criteria. Statistical Analysis used: Data was entered in MS Excel and analysed using SPSS version 20. Percentages and proportions of Activities of daily living (ADL) and informal caregiver strain of Modified Caregivers Strain Index (MSCI) and their scores were expressed in median and interquartile range. Spearman’s Rho was used to determine the association of ADL and MCSI scores. Results: 47.5% of informal caregivers experienced mild stress; 70 % of the 200 elderly were fully functional. Strain level of the informal caregivers showed a negative correlation (0.557) with the dependency level of the elderly. Conclusion: With increasing dependency level of elderly, informal caregiver strain should be assessed.