Comparison of Educational Strategies Focused on Primary Caregiver Burden

Abstract

Objective: to compare two types of educational strategies (participatory vs. traditional) focused on reducing caregiver burden. Methods: a quasi-experimental study was carried out, with two groups of twenty primary caregivers each, the Barthel scale was applied to their patients to determine some degree of dependency, as well as the Zarit scale to obtain the degree of the caregiver burden before and after an educational strategy; the management of the information was done through descriptive and inferential statistics. Independent variables were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test p<0.05, 95% ci and Mac Nemar to compare the change in the distribution of proportions p<0.05, 95% ci. Results: there was little burden at the beginning of the intervention in 80% (n=16) of the group A corresponding to caregivers with a participatory strategy and 75% (n=15) of the group B corresponding to caregivers with a traditional strategy; after the intervention, group A reported 55% (n=11) and group B, 60% (n=12) of participants with a little burden (p<0.05); there was no change in the intense of burden after the educational strategy. Conclusions: Participatory education is useful for reducing caregiver’s burden It is important to assess specialized support to decrease the impact of intense caregiver responsibility load.