Caregiver Burden in Pulmonary Patients

Third-party disability in cochlear implant users

OBJECTIVE

To date, auditory rehabilitation mainly focuses on the person with hearing impairment (PHI). This study aimed to analyse the burden of hearing loss on significant others (SOs), and to explore the impact of contextual and mediating psychosocial co-factors and auditory rehabilitation by cochlear implantation (CI).

DESIGN AND STUDY SAMPLE

Third-party disability (SOS-HEAR) and quality of life (Nijmegen Cochlear Implant Questionnaire) were evaluated in 41 PHI scheduled for CI surgery and their close partners pre- and 6-month post-implantation. Further, age, hearing status, educational level, depressive symptoms (GDS-15), coping strategies (Brief-COPE), resilience (RS-13), stress (PSQ) of SOs and PHI were studied.

RESULTS

Hearing loss imposes a burden on SOs, particularly in relation to changes in communication and socialisation. Third-party disability was higher in SOs of PHI with lower educational background (p = 0.04) and of advanced age (p = 0.008). Hearing status of SOs negatively correlated with SOS-HEAR (p = 0.04). After CI, quality of life of PHI and third-party disability of SOs improved (p < 0.001), except in relationship changes. SOs with higher pre-operative burden also experienced more third-party disability afterwards (p ≤ 0.003).

CONCLUSION

Audiological rehabilitation should expand to include SOs in the rehabilitation process, as the burden experienced by SOs might persist even after CI.

Difficulties in Caring for the Older Adults: Perspective of Brazilian and Portuguese Caregivers

This study aims to understand the difficulties in caring for the older adults with functional dependence from the perspective of Brazilian and Portuguese caregivers. This is a study based on the Theory of Social Representations, based on the Thematic Content Analysis proposed by Bardin, carried out with 21 informal caregivers of older adults in Brazil and 11 informal caregivers of older adults in Portugal. The instrument consisted of a questionnaire with sociodemographic data and data on health conditions along with an open interview with guiding questions on the theme of care. Data were analyzed using the Content Analysis technique proposed by Bardin, with the help of the QRS NVivo^® Version 11 software (QSR International, Burlington, MA, USA). Three categories emerged from the speeches: "Caregiver burden", "Caregiver support network" and "Older adults resistance". The main difficulties mentioned by caregivers were associated with family articulation in meeting the needs of their older adults, whether due to the excessive demand of tasks, which results in overloading the caregiver, or the behaviors of the older adults themselves, or even the availability of a truly supportive and effective network.