Abstract:

Objective To investigate the status of care burden and quality of life of family caregivers living with tuberculosis (TB) children, and to explore the correlation between the two, so as to provide a reference for formulating the systematic family intervention measures. Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) and Family Caregiver-Specific Quality of Life Scale (FAMQOL) were used to investigate the family caregivers of 76 children with TB who hospitalized in Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center from September 2017 to March 2018. The total score of Zarit Burden Interview was 0-88, the higher the score was, the heavier the caregiver’s burden was. The ZBI score 0-19 indicated that there was no or little burden, the ZBI score 20-39 meant light burden, the ZBI score 40-59 meant mild burden, and the ZBI score above 60 means heavy burden. The total score of Family Caregiver-Specific Quality of Life Scale was 16-80, the higher the score was, the higher the quality of life was. T test, one-way ANOVA, rank-sum test were used to compare the data among groups, and Pearson correlation analysis or Spearman correlation analysis were used to test the correlation of care burden and quality of life of family caregivers living with TB children. The total score of care burden was 41.39±14.86, and the personal burden and responsibility burden scores were 22.58±9.10 and 10.79±4.88 respectively. The total FAMQOL score was 50.46±14.25, in which spiritual status (SS) was 11.61±4.53, mental status (MS) was 12.70±4.40, social concerns (SC) was 13.01±3.62 and physical status (PS) was 13.14±3.72.There was significantly negative correlation between the score of care burden and that of quality of life in the family caregivers of TB children (r=-0.726, P<0.001). The family caregivers of TB children have care burdens in different degrees, which influence on the quality of their lives.

Key words: Child, Tuberculosis, Family caregivers, Caregiver burden, Quality of life, Data interpretation, statistical