Qualitative Study of Chinese Stroke Caregivers' Caregiving Experience During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Stroke
; 52(4): 1407-1414, 2021 04.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1085243
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has led to disruptions in health care service delivery worldwide, inevitably affecting stroke survivors requiring ongoing rehabilitation and chronic illness management. To date, no published research has been found on stroke caregiving during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to explore Hong Kong stroke caregivers' caregiving experiences in the midst of this difficult time.METHODS:
Individual semistructured interviews were conducted with 25 Chinese adult primary stroke caregivers from May to June 2020 via telephone. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using an interpretive description approach and constant comparison strategy.RESULTS:
Five themes of the stroke caregiving experience during the COVID-19 pandemic emerged care service adversities, additional caregiving workload and strain, threatened relationship between caregiver and stroke survivors, threats to caregivers' physical and psychological well-being, and needs for continuing caregiving roles. Our findings suggested that caregivers have worsened physical and psychological well-being because of increases in care burden with simultaneously reduced formal and informal support. The relationship between caregiver and stroke survivor was subsequently affected, placing some survivors at heightened risk of abuse.CONCLUSIONS:
Our study provides valuable findings about stroke caregiving experiences and needs during the pandemic. Delivery of psychological support, telemedicine, and household hygiene resources would be useful to mitigate caregivers' psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Caregivers
/
Stroke
/
Qualitative Research
/
Pandemics
/
Stroke Rehabilitation
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Qualitative research
Limits:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
Stroke
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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