[Quality of life and caregiver burden in caregivers with patients with complications from type 2 diabetes mellitus].

Abstract

Background: Chronic diseases with partial dependence, including type 2 diabetes mellitus, modify the way of life of the patient and his family, who adopt the role of caregiver having to reorganize, rethink their expectations and adapt their goals and objectives to the situation, this may generate a deterioration of the quality of life and an overload syndrome.

Objective: To identify the relationship between quality of life and caregiver overload in caregivers with patients with complications from type 2 diabetes mellitus assigned to the Family Medicine Unit No. 7.

Material and methods: Cross-sectional study, carried out with 138 caregivers with a patient with complications from type 2 diabetes mellitus. The sociodemographic profile instruments, the SF-36 health questionnaire, and the Zarit scale were used for data collection. The analysis was carried out through descriptive statistics and Spearman's correlation test, with a significance level of p≤0.05.

Results: It was identified that the health-related quality of life in caregivers with patients with complications from type 2 diabetes mellitus evaluated with the SF-36 questionnaire had a mean value of 74.8; with a score in the physical and mental components of 63.9 and 38.1 respectively. The best qualified dimensions were social function (84.9) and physical function, on the other hand, vitality obtained a lower qualification. It was observed that 5.05% of the caregivers present light overload and 5.05% intense overload. When performing the correlation between the global rating of the Zarit scale with the 8 dimensions of the SF-36 health questionnaire in caregivers of patients with complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus, a moderate negative correlation was observed between the dimensions of mental health, physical function, emotional role and vitality, as well as a weak negative correlation between the dimensions of social role and physical role.

Conclusions: The results show an inverse correlation between the caregiver's burden and the quality-of-life dimensions, that is, if one decreases, the other increases; It is important to carry out health promotion activities in this population to prevent caregiver overload.