Nivel de sobrecarga en cuidadores de pacientes de hospitalización Paliativa. SOLCA. Guayaquil, 2021.

Abstract

In order to determine the level of overload in primary caregivers of patients with neoplastic disease who receive palliative treatment at the SOLCA Hospital, Guayaquil, 90 caregivers were interviewed in the period March to September 2021. In the study population there was a predominance of women (76%), mostly housewives (44%), daughters of the patient (41%) or wife of the patient (24%), with an average age of 44.9 ± 14.9 years, a median care time of 9 months and fashion of 5 months, between a minimum of 5 months and a maximum of 10 years. The most prevalent neoplastic diseases were those of digestive (36%) and gynecological (28%) origin. The prevalence of overload was 53.3%, a result similar to the international series but low compared to studies carried out in the country. The factor associated with overload was the condition of being a caregiver (female), OR of 3.1 (95% CI 1.2 – 7.9) which increases by 3.1 times the probability of experiencing intense exhaustion with respect to what if it were a caregiver (male) (P = 0.013). Zarit's abbreviated questionnaire, applied in the interview, is a methodological tool of high sensitivity and specificity reported in validation studies in Spanish-speaking countries. In our study it had a high reliability (Cronbach's alpha 0.91) and was easy to use, therefore it could be implemented in the institution for the benefit of similar research.