Effect of Education and Telephone Follow-Up on Care Burden of Caregivers of Older Patients with Stroke

Objectives: Stroke is the second most common cause of death and the third leading cause of disability worldwide.  Caregivers of stroke patients experience high levels of care burden that impacts their physical as well as psychological wellbeing. It is necessary to use interventional programs for home caregivers to prevent and relieve their burden of care. Therefore, this study was aimed to determine the effect of educational intervention and telephone follow-up on caregiver burden in family caregivers of older patients with stroke disease. Methods & Materials: This randomized controlled trial study was performed on 79 home caregivers of older patients with stroke in Qazvin, Iran. In the first stage, the samples were selected among the caregivers of older patients with stroke admitted to the neurology ward of Bu-Ali hospital within 1 to 6 months before the study. Then, they were randomly divided into intervention and control groups by the block randomization technique. For the intervention group, 12 weeks of educational intervention was conducted through telephone follow-up and social media. Questionnaires were completed by the caregivers. Data were collected by demographic checklist and Bartel scale, Cambridge Burden Inventory (CBI) questionnaire. The independent t‐test, paired t‐test and chi‐square tests were used for analyzing the data. Results: The mean age of caregivers was 46.16 ± 11.32 years with a range of 24 to 78 and the mean age of the older patients was 71.25 ± 7.58 years with a range of 60 to 90. The majority of the caregivers were female (n = 79, 65.82%) and married (n = 65, 82.28%).. Before the intervention, the mean score of total caregivers’ burden of care (intervention group = 26.20 ± 11.08, control group = 28.70 ± 11.63) was not significantly different between the two groups (P = 0.333). But, the intervention (18.28 ± 10.07) and control groups (29.80 ± 11.76) showed a significant difference in the burden of care, after the intervention (P <0.001). Furthermore, 12 weeks of intervention, decreased the burden care in the intervention group (P <0.001). Conclusions: The findings of the present study support that intervention through education and telephone follow-up can be an effective method for reducing the burden of care of caregivers of older patients with stroke.