Abstract

Emmanuel Uzodinma Iwuozo , Obiako Reginald

Epilepsy has a great impact on the lives of the patients and their caregivers. Caring for patients with epilepsy is challenging and associated with enormous burden. This study assessed the burden of caregiving and its correlates among caregivers of persons with epilepsy. A cross-sectional study carried out among caregivers of persons with epilepsy at a tertiary hospital in Nigeria from September 2013 to September 2014. Ethical approval and informed consent were obtained. Structured questionnaire and the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) was interviewer administered to the caregivers. The mean age of caregivers was 40.3 ±12.8 years. There were 47(45.6%) males and 56 (54.4%) females. The mean ZBI, duration of care and hours of caring daily were 45.0 ± 16.7, 9.1 ±9.3 and 9.5 ± 6.2 respectively. The caregivers burden were described as no burden in 3 (2.9%), mild burden in 47 (45.6%), moderate burden in 38 (36.9%) and severe burden in 15 (14.6%). There was a negative correlation between burden of care and health related quality of life of persons with epilepsy (r = - 0.355, p = 0.0001) while age of the caregivers correlated positively with their duration of care giving (r = 0.36, p = 0.002). There was no significant relationship between burden of caregiving and the sex of caregivers, their marital status, seizure type in patients and seizure control in the past 1 month (p > 0.05).Majority of the caregivers had mild burden with health related quality of life and duration found to be significant correlates.