Caring for persons with severe burns injury: Analysis of caregivers' coping strategies and quality of life
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Date
2015-04-17
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Publisher
University of Ghana
Abstract
Living with severe burns injury poses both psychological and physical
threats to both patients and caregivers. However, the focus of
attention has always been on the patients with little attention given to
the caregivers who play significant roles in the recovery process. This
study examined the association between coping strategies and quality
of life of caregivers of persons with severe burns injury. A total of 100
caregivers were randomly sampled from the Reconstructive Plastic
Surgery and Burns Centre of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and were
administered with the Brief Cope and the WHOQOL Brief. A cross-sectional
study design was used. Results from the analysis showed
that only three coping strategies, denial, religion, and behavioural
disengagement predicted overall quality of life among the caregivers.
Some of the caregiver's coping strategies also significantly predicted
the domain specific quality of life of the caregivers. It is therefore
concluded that caregivers use varied coping strategies which affect
their quality of life and must therefore be taken into consideration in
planning psychosocial interventions for the care givers.
Description
School of social sciences colloquium
Keywords
Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, WHOQOL, physical threats