JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The longevity of the world population can contribute to an increase in hospitalizations, consequently, to the emergence of functional limitations, resulting in the need for an informal caregiver. Hospitalized elderly people may become dependent with greater demands for care provided, resulting in greater burden on the family caregiver.

Objective:

To analyze the association between the demographic variables of interest and self-rated health of family caregivers, as well as to describe the functionality of elderly people hospitalized in a university hospital in the Amazonian context.

Methods:

Cross-sectional, quantitative and observational study, carried out through individual interviews with 98 interviewees, divided into 49 family caregivers and 49 elderly people hospitalized in the surgical clinic sector of a university hospital. Demographic data and health conditions were collected from family caregivers and, to describe the functionality of hospitalized elderly people, the Barthel Index was applied. Descriptive and inferential analyzes were used, the t student tests were applied and for bivariate analysis the Pearson Correlation. A significance level of 5% was adopted.

Results:

Of the 49 family caregivers, there was a predominance of females (81.6%) with an average age of 46.9 (±13.3) years, single (57.1%) with complete average education (53.1% ) who care for their parents (51%). Regarding health conditions, respondents self-assess their health as good (P < .01), they consider that their health status was not affected by the provision of care (P < .01). There was a significant association between demographic variables (gender, age and education) and self-assessment of informal caregivers (P < .01, P < .01 and P < .05, respectively). Of the 49 elderly people hospitalized, the majority were men (63.2%) with a mean age of 69.2 (±7.12) years. Regarding the assessment of functionality, most were classified as mild dependence on care (46.9%), specifically in the age group between 60 and 69 (67.8%).

Conclusions:

The data reveal that feminization, age and education of family caregivers contribute favorably to the provision of care to hospitalized elderly people with a lower degree of functional dependence.