THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CARING BURDEN AND COPING STRATEGIES IN HEMODIALYSIS PATIENTS CAREGIVERS

Patients with end stage renal disease require long term treatment and care,
therefore their caregivers encounter treatment related problems and caring difficulties along with
responsibility adaptation. The aim of this survey was to examine the relationship between caring
burden and coping strategies in hemodialysis patients caregivers.
Material & Methods: in this descriptive and analytical study, 120 caregivers of hemodialysis patients
who referred to fifth Azar educative and therapeutic center in Gorgan, were selected through Census
sampling method. Data were gathered via caregiver burden and coping strategies questionnaire. Data
analysis was performed by SPSS software by means of Pearson correlation coefficient, liner regression
and independent t-test.
Results: mean and standard deviation of caregivers' age was 42.22±13.09 and men formed 59% of
subjects. Regression analysis showed that one score increase in problem based coping strategies
decreases total caregiver burden as 0.295 (P<0.05) and also one score increase in emotion based
coping strategies could increase care burden as 0.655 (P<0.05).
Conclusion: according to the findings, coping educational programs for hemodialysis patients
caregivers should be develop. Improvement of effective coping strategies could decline care burden
and then promote physical and psychosocial health