Effects on caregiver burden of education related to home care in patients undergoing hemodialysis

Caring for a patient undergoing hemodialysis is highly stressful and can negatively affect a caregiver's physical and psychological well-being. This study was conducted to examine the effect of educational support concerning caregiver burden and given to the caregivers of hemodialysis patients. This experimental study was performed with 122 caregivers. Patients' data were collected by means of Personal Information Form and Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale (ZCBS). Characteristics of caregivers of hemodialysis patients were analyzed descriptively in terms of frequencies and percentages for categorical data, means, and standard deviations. Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskall-Wallis test, and percentages were used in the data analysis. The mean ZCBS score was 52.1 +/- 8.6 (range, 0-88). Among the caregivers, the mean score of the ZCBS was significantly higher in women, single, young, family relatives as daughter/sister/brother/daughter-in-law and town/district, high educational level (P<0.05). Moreover, the mean score of the ZCBS was significantly higher in caregivers who have health problems/diseases. In addition, this study explored the educational needs of home-based such as nutrition (35.2%), dialysis (27.8%), fistula care (20.4%), catheter care (18.8%), the information about chronic kidney disease (18.0%), blood pressure (17.2%), weight control (17.2%), hygiene (3.1%), and travel/exercise (6.5%). The post-educational mean scores (55.0 +/- 7.6) of caregiver burden were observed to be lower than the pre-educational scores (43.9 +/- 5.2), and the difference was found to be statistically significant. The home-based educational program demonstrated a decrease in the burden of hemodialysis caregivers.