Burden of Care, Quality of Life, and Coping Strategies among Spouses of Alcohol-Dependence Patients in Tertiary Health Care Centre

ABSTRACT Caregiving to a patient with substance-abuse is quite stressful and places an additional burden to the caregiver which in turn have a huge impact on their quality of life. To overcome this burden and improve their quality of life, caregivers adopt some coping strategies. To study the burden of care, coping strategies and quality of life among spouses of alcohol-dependence patients. In this case control study, 100 spouses of diagnosed alcohol-dependence patients were taken as cases and the same number of age and sex-matched spouses of normal healthy individuals were taken as controls. AUDIT – C scale was applied to diagnose alcohol dependence in patients. M.I.N.I scale used on spouses, to rule out any chronic psychiatric illness. Burden Interview Schedule (BIS), EUROHIS-QOL scale, and Brief COPE Scale were used to find the burden on spouses, their quality of life, and coping strategies used by them. In this study, the mean burden of care score (BIS) was significantly higher in cases (35.11 ± 4.97) as compared to that in controls (16.56 ± 9.98). Mean scores for BIS subdomains were also significantly higher in cases as compared to that in controls. There was no significant difference in the EUROHIS-QOL ratings between the cases and controls. Mean BRIEF COPE scale scores were significantly lower in cases (77.39 ± 18.10) as compared to that in controls (82.89 ± 16.43). The only difference between the two groups that was statistically significant was the avoidant coping score. The findings of this study showed that spouses of alcohol-dependent patients experience a high burden of care in all subdomains. Adaptive coping strategies were mainly taken by spouses of alcohol dependence patients, to cope with the situation. The quality of life of spouses of alcohol-dependent patients was not affected.