Burnout Among Caretakers of Paediatric Patient with Chronic Kidney Disease

Introduction: Caring for children who have chronic kidney disease (CKD) is challenging. The goal of this study was to find out the prevalence of burnout and what factors contribute to it. We also want to know the correlation between caretaker’s strain and burnout. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study that involved caretakers of children with CKD. They were recruited from a university hospital in Kelantan, Malaysia. Self-administered questionnaire in Malay language comprised of Demographic Information Form, Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI-M) and Caregiver Strain Index (CSI-M) was used. Results: Eighty-eight caretakers were involved in this study. The mean age of caretakers was 42 years old, majority were female (72.4%), Malay (99.0%) and Muslim (99.0%). The mean age of children with CKD was 11 years old, most of them were on medication (69.3%) and mean duration of illness was 4.6 years. The prevalence of burnout in all domains (personal, work-related, client-related) among the caretakers was 5.7%. Eight caretakers had personal burnout (9.1%) while five (5.7%) had client-related and work-related burnout respectively. Multiple linear regression showed positive association of duration since the initial diagnosis and total ward admission within six months with total burnout score. Pearson correlation revealed a positive and fair correlation between strain and burnout. Conclusion: Prevalence of burnout among caretakers was generally low, but personal burnout outnumbered other domains. Children with CKD with longer duration of illness and more frequent ward admission are the important factors leading to burnout among caretakers. A high number of caretakers having significant strain indicated that there were possibilities of developing burnout later on.