Quality of life in caregivers of heart, cancer, and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome patients

Pages: 120-126
Naved Iqbal, Mehfooz Ahmad, Sumaira Rafiq Zargar, and Sheema Aleem (Department of Psychology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India)

Heart, cancer and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) are very serious diseases rising in the world. These diseases not only create distress in the patient’s life but also influence negatively caregivers’ life. Factors, such as physical, and psychological health, financial burden, limitation on freedom and social interactions (that accompany the care recipient’s need for supervision), and the additional roles assumed by the most caregivers including those of wife, parent, spouse and employee, all contribute to caregivers distress. This distress thus, affects the quality of life (QOL) of caregivers. Many researches have been carried on the various aspects of heart, cancer and AIDS patients. The present research was planned and carried out with the objectives of measuring and comparing the QOL of caregivers of heart, cancer, and AIDS patients. Total sample of the study comprised 120 subjects, 40 in each three groups, i.e. caregivers of heart, cancer and AIDS patients. Data were collected from various hospitals of Delhi. The WHOQOL-BRIEF questionnaire (1996) was used to collect the data. ANOVA and post-hoc test were used to analyze the data. Results showed a significant difference among the three groups of caregivers of heart, cancer and AIDS patients on overall QOL and its domains, i.e., physical health, psychological, social relationship and environment. Caregivers of heart and cancer patients have better QOL than the caregivers of AIDS patients.