title: Burden and modifications in life from the perspective of caregivers for patients after stroke.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  to analyze the impact that caring has on a member of the family caring for a patient after a cerebrovascular accident, correlating life modifications and mental suffering with the perceived burden.
  
  
  METHODS
  a cross-sectional, quantitative study, undertaken in January-April 2010 in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil.
  
  
  RESULTS
  61 individuals were investigated, monitored by three hospitals' Home Care Program. Data collection was through interviews for identifying life changes, and through the application of three scales for investigating perceived burden, mental state and mental suffering. Respectively these were the Caregiver Burden Scale (CBS), the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Self Reported Questionnaire (SRQ). The majority of the carers were female, married, and the children of the stroke patients. The average age was 48.2 years (±12.4). The most-cited life modifications referred to the daily routine, to leisure activities, and to exhaustion or tiredness. Regarding burden, the dimensions of General tension, Isolation and Disappointment stood out. It was ascertained that overload was more severe when the carer presented more symptoms of psychological distress, in the absence of a secondary carer, and when the principal carers reported perceiving changes in their bodies and health.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  an association between burden and the carer's mental state was not observed. Understanding the care, through analysis of the burden and of the knowledge of the biopsychosocial situation will provide support for the nurse's work in reducing the overload for family caregivers.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.
authors.forename: Huana Carolina Cândido
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Morais
authors.forename: Arethusa Morais de Gouveia
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.forename: Ana Railka de Souza
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.forename: Carolina Maria de Lima
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Carvalho
authors.forename: Maria Josefina
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.forename: Thelma Leite
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: de Araujo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017028:Caregivers; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology; D020521:Stroke / Q000451:nursing