The Effect of Family-Centered Education on Stress and Anxiety in Caregivers of Patients with Covid-19

Background: The COVID-19 disease has caused the spread of a wide range of psychological disorders such as stress and anxiety in patients and families. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the effect of a family-based education on stress and anxiety in the caregivers of COVID-19 patients. Methods: The present clinical trial was conducted on 50 caregivers of patients with COVID-19 in Allameh Bohlool Gonabadi Hospital in 2022. Caregivers were selected through a convenience sampling method and were equally assigned to either the experimental or the control group. The former received a family-centered educational program for four days, but the control group only received the usual education. Depression, anxiety and stress questionnaire (DASS) was completed in both groups before and after the intervention. The data were statistically analyzed in SPSS 22 software. Results: The present study revealed no statistically significant difference between the two research groups in terms of the demographic variables (p<0.005). The independent-samples t-test showed that the mean and standard deviation of COVID-19 caregivers’ stress in the experimental group decreased significantly compared to the pre-interventional phase. Yet, in the control group this change was not significant (p<0.001). Also, the Mann-Whitney U-test showed that after the intervention (in the posttest), the mean and standard deviation of caregivers' anxiety in the experimental group decreased significantly compared to the pretest, but this change was not significant in the control group (p<0.001). Conclusion: According to the findings of this research, the family-based educational program can be used to reduce the stress and anxiety of caregivers of hospitalized patients with COVID-19.