Caregivers’ Perceptions of Burden and Health- Promoting Behaviours among Informal Caregivers of Cancer and Stroke Patients Attending Tertiary Care Facilities in South- South Nigeria.

Tóm tắt

Family caregivers’ role in cancer and stroke care is overly burdensome. Studies have considered burden and predictors of burden but the influence of caregiving burden on health - promoting behaviours among cancer and stroke family caregivers in Nigeria is scarce. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of caregivers’ perceptions of burden and health-promoting behaviours on informal caregivers of cancer/ stroke patients attending tertiary care facilities in South- South Nigeria. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was employed among 410 purposively selected cancer/ stroke patients’ family caregivers in tertiary care facilities, South- South Nigeria.  A standardized Zarit burden interview scale and structured questionnaire were used to measure burden and determine health-promoting behaviours respectively. Descriptive (means, standard deviation and percentages) and inferential (ANOVA) statistics with a Fisher’s protected t- test  at 0.05 level of significance were used for data analysis. The respondents experienced severe (F= 14.02; P= 0.810) burden in caregiving to cancer/ stroke patients. Meanwhile, the F- cal of 16.07 is greater than the P- value of 0.000 at the 0.05 level of significance;  implying  that the influence of health- promoting behaviours (primary, secondary and tertiary preventions) among caregivers of cancer/ stroke is significantly high in the tertiary care facilities, South- South, Nigeria. Caregivers of cancer and stroke patients experienced severe levels of burden and health-promoting-behaviours in terms of prevention at the primary, secondary and tertiary activities were significantly high among respondents. This calls for knowledge mobilization and dissemination in Nigeria and beyond.