Evaluation of the social network and support of caregivers of dependent patients

• Grant number: 11/04244-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: August 01, 2011
• End date: March 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Nursing
• Principal Investigator: Maria Amélia de Campos Oliveira
• Grantee: Cintia Hitomi Yamashita
• Host Institution: Escola de Enfermagem (EE). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The increasing of people with dependency, due to the aging of the population and the increasing of chronic diseases, brought the necessity for people who could assist in caring of these individuals. Perform care of a person with dependency in the household causes changes in family routine, and also in the physical, psychological, social and economic aspects of the family. The caregiver often needs to realize the full-time care and can not expect assistance from other people, precluding him from doing extradomiciliar work and leading him to depart from affective and professional relationships, causing social isolation, burden, change in the quality of life and health problems due to the care. The social network and support are important because they contribute to improving the quality of life of the caregivers, reducing the negative impact that the illness of the family person carries on the whole family. To evaluate the social network and support of caregivers of dependent patients attended by a Home Care Service (AD) in São Paulo municipality. To describe the sociodemographic features, perceived burden and health features of family caregivers; identify, through the genogram, the structure, family dynamics, and the social network and support of the caregiver; investigate the association between the social support and health conditions scores, perceived burden and sociodemographic variables, and identify the level of dependence, age, sex and morbidity of object of the care people. It is an exploratory, observational, cross-sectional study, with quantitative approach. It will be realized in a Home Care Service located in the south of the city, in the sub prefecture of Cidade Ademar. The sample will be consist of caregivers of patients with some level of dependence attended by the AD. It will be included people who are carers for more than three months, and receive no remuneration as a result of care provided. Families in which it is not possible to identify the primary caregiver will be excluded. The interviews will be conducted at the caregivers residence, after previous contact for scheduling and for the research presentation. Before the interviews, the caregivers must sign a Free and Informed Term of Consent, being informed about confidentiality and the possibility of refusing to participate in the research, according to 196/96 Resolution. It will be used the following instruments for the collecting data: sociodemographic form for description of the health conditions of the caregiver and the patient; the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS), translated and validated by Griep et al in 2005, and used to identify the caregiver social support; the Social Network Index, validated by Griep et al in 2003, to verify the caregiver's social contacts origin, and the Genogram to verify the caregiver's family structure. It also will be used the Barthel Index, to verify the level of dependency of the patient. The data will be analyzed through the SPSS 13.0 statistical package, and the significance level adopted will be 5%. Quantitative variables will be analyzed descriptively, after calculation of minimum and maximum values, medium, standard deviations and medians. Qualitative variables will be analyzed using absolute and relative frequencies. It will be used the Cronbach's alpha to analyze the internal consistency of the questionnaires. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

YAMASHITA, Cintia Hitomi. Evaluation of the social network and support of family caregivers of dependent patients. 2013. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Enfermagem (EE/SBD) São Paulo.