Health related quality of life of primary caregivers of persons with tetraplegia attending at a specialized rehabilitation centre

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the health related quality of life among the caregivers of Tetraplegic patient. Objectives: Assessment of the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of primary caregivers of persons with tetraplegia owing to traumatic SCI. Methodology: The study design was cross-sectional. Total 48 samples were selected conveniently for this study from Centre for the rehabilitation of the paralysed (CRP), Spinal cord injury unit, at Savar. Data was collected by using of questionnaire and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was assessed by the Short Form-36 (SF-36) health survey questionnaire. Descriptive statistics through using SPSS software version 16.0 was used for data analysis which focused through Column, pie chart and doughnut. Results: Among 48 caregivers evaluated, 39 (81.2%) were female and 9 (18.8%) were male where 22 persons (45.8%) were either husbands or wives and 15 persons (31.2%) were parents of persons with tetraplegia. It was found that the most of the caregivers (62.5%) spend about 13-18 hrs/day caring for individuals with tetraplegia. The subjects reported lower scores on social functioning and emotional well being than the other dimensions of SF-36. Conclusion: The primary caregivers of spinal-cord injured persons reported low scores on all of the SF-36 dimensions, social functioning and emotional well-being the SF- 36 dimensions that characterize poor quality of life (QoL) among all.

Key words: Tetraplegia, HRQoL, Caregivers, CRP