JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The demographic changes of the world's population result in an increasingly aging society, with a progressive increase in people in a situation of dependency, who need assistance from family members to meet their basic needs. In this context, the informal caregiver of the hospitalized elderly emerges as a focus of attention.

Objective:

To analyze the overload of informal caregivers of hospitalized elderly in a pandemic period in the Amazonian context

Methods:

Cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study, carried out with 25 informal caregivers of elderly people in a hospital in the North of Western Amazon, between August and September 2022. Two instruments were used: Caregiver Burden Inventory and a sociodemographic questionnaire. Descriptive analysis (frequency and percentage) and inferential were performed using Student's t test with a confidence interval (CI) of 95%.

Results:

Caregivers predominated (72%) with a mean age of 44 years, married/stable union (46%), complete high school (56%) living with the elderly (44%). There was total overload (42.0), specifically in personal life overload (10.8; P <0,05) followed by physical overload (10.6; P <0,02).

Conclusions:

There was an increase in the general overload of informal caregivers, with emphasis on personal life overload, followed by physical overload.