EVALUATION OF QUALITY OF LIFE AND BURDEN OF CAREGIVERS OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY

Abstract

Aim: The study evaluated the quality of life and burden of informal caregivers of people with intellectual disabilities of Florianopolis. Materials and Methods: Were used the WHOQOL-Bref to assess quality of life and the "Burden Interview" to evaluate burden. The data were processed by descriptive statistics and was later applied the Mann-Whitney test for comparison between groups and Wilcoxon test for comparison between the domains of quality of life. Finally, were tested the correlation between the internal components of quality of life and burden with the Spearman correlation test. The data were analyzed with SPSS 17.0, with a significance level of 0.05. Results: The sample (n = 66) had a mean of 50.29 ± 14.91 years, being composed mostly of women (83.3%), mothers (56.1%), married (54.5%) and retired (53%). Caregivers showed poorer scores on quality of life in the environment domain, followed by the psychological and physical. The results also showed the dependence and responsibility for the care with higher burden. Conclusion: Data demonstrate a direct relationship between quality of life and burden of caregivers. The higher the burden reported worse quality of life. The caregivers attributed the lack of money, excess liability and dependence as key factors of wear.