Assessment Of Caregiver Burden Among The Primary Caregivers Of Senior Citizen

ABSTRACT

During the 20 century the proportion of senior citizens continued to rise, and this trend is expected to continue into the 21 century. Caregiver burden refers to a high level of stress that may be experienced by people who are caring for another person with some kind of illness. Caregivers are ‘hidden patients’ and their role is stressful.The role of the primary caregiver is stressful.The primary caregivers of senior citizen who experience care giving – related stress have a 63% higher mortality rate non caregivers of the same age.it is a paramount responsibility of the nurses to assess the degree of caregiver burden among primary care givers of senior citizen and to desire coping strategies, to reduce their level of care giver burden. Objectives:Assess the level of caregiverburden among primary caregivers of senior citizen and associate the demographic variables with level of caregiver burden. Materials and Methods: Non experimental research approach of descriptive design was adopted.This study was conducted at selected rural community in Bangalore.The primary caregivers (100) of senior citizen were recruited for this study by purposive sampling technique. Zarit’s Caregiver Burden five point likert Scale (ZCBS) was used to collect the data. Findings:The over all caregiver burden is moderate to severe among 92 % of the primarycaregivers.It shows that active coping skills and management strategies are inadequate among the primary caregiver’s of senior citizens. Conclusion: assessing the degree of caregiver burden among primary care givers of senior citizen and to desire coping strategies, to reduce their level of care giver burden is an essential part for the health care providers