Quality of life of caregivers supporting neurologically impaired patients who underwent surgery
Background A questionnaire survey was conducted to clarify whether surgical treatments performed by a pediatric surgeon improve the quality of life (QOL) of caregivers (medical doctors, nurses, physical therapists, and nursery teachers) supporting neurologically impaired (NI) patients who work at sp...
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Published in | Pediatric investigation Vol. 64; no. 1; pp. e15138 - n/a |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Australia
John Wiley & Sons, Inc
01.01.2022
Blackwell Publishing Ltd |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Background
A questionnaire survey was conducted to clarify whether surgical treatments performed by a pediatric surgeon improve the quality of life (QOL) of caregivers (medical doctors, nurses, physical therapists, and nursery teachers) supporting neurologically impaired (NI) patients who work at specialized institutions.
Methods
The questionnaire survey was conducted with caregivers who cared for NI patients who underwent an operation at the Department of Pediatric Surgery, Kurume University Hospital. Quality‐of‐life related responses concerning the change of care after surgical procedures in NI patients were collected in addition to the background data related to caregivers and the surgical procedures performed for them. Degrees of difficulty in caring for NI patients and of the caregivers’ own QOL postoperatively were also compared.
Results
There were 192 valid responses. The majority of responses were from females and nurses aged in their 40s and 50s. The surgical procedure performed most often in the NI patients was gastrostomy. Of the respondents, 77% answered that the postoperative care became easier. The degrees of difficulty in caring for NI patients and the caregivers’ own QOL were significantly higher and lower, respectively, among physical therapists compared with caregivers in other occupations. Moreover, the QOL in respondents with factors related to a longstanding relationship with NI patients was significantly higher compared with the respondents without them.
Conclusion
This survey indicated that surgical procedures for NI patients might contribute to improved QOL for the caregiver by reducing the difficulty of caring for NI patients. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 1328-8067 2096-3726 1442-200X 2574-2272 |
DOI: | 10.1111/ped.15138 |