The burden of professional who give care to people with chronic disease who belong to a home hospitalization program (Manizales, Colombia)

Carga de cuidado en cuidadores de personas con enfermedad crónica pertenecientes a un programa de hospitalización en casa (Manizales, Colombia)

Objective: to describe the burden of care of the main caregivers of people with chronic disease who belong to a home hospitalization program in the city of Manizales

(Colombia). Materials and methods: quantitative and observational cross-sectional study, whose sample consisted of 76 main caregivers of people with a chronic disease who received health services through a home care program. The questionnaire Zarit was applied for the collection of data. Results: the 85.5% of the caregivers were female. The 34.6% were over 60 years old, 36.8% were married and and with a technical, technological or university level of schooling at 57.9%.The Zarit questionnaire reported a low burden for the 22.4% and intense overburden at 21.1%. In this group of caregivers the subscales that showed the highest averages are related to the care effect, the interpersonal burden and the uncertainty regarding care. Merely a low association between the number of daily hours dedicated to care and the burden of care (p = 0.033) was found, showing an intense overburden level, in those who spent more than 15 hours per day caring people with chronic disease. Conclusions: the 43.5% of caregivers showed certain level of overburden. For these caregivers the highest averages were located in the subscales related to the impact of care, the interpersonal burden and the uncertainty regarding care. It is important to carry out other studies in which the multidimensional predictors that generate the overburden can be analyze more deeply.