The prevalence of depression and burden of care among family care givers of mentally retarded children at Gachie Catholic Parish in Kiambu
Abstract
GENERAL OBJECTIVE
The study was carried out so as to determine the prevalence of depression and burden among
caregivers of mentally retarded children.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
To determine the social demographic profile of the study population.
To determine the level of depression among the caregivers.
To determine the burden of disease on the caregivers
To determine the association between social demographic profile and levels of depression.
To provide evidence for recommendations on any assistance required by the caregivers.
STUDY SETTING
The study was conducted at Gachie Catholic Parish which is made up of eight outstation
churches. Some of the parishioner's children suffer from Mental Retardation.
Study Population:
These were the caregivers who have children in their family set up having a mental handicap.
Study design:
Cross sectional, Descriptive study
Methodology:
The caregivers of the mentally retarded children in the family set up.
Those who met the criteria completed the self administered social demographic questionnaire
(SDQ) which was developed by researcher to check variables such as Age, Gender, Marital
status, Religion, Occupation, Beck depression inventory and burden of disease questionnaire but
the researcher guided them where necessary.
Data was analyzed using spss version 12: Results are presented in form of tables.
Results
79% of the caregivers had clinically significant depression presented as follows: 30 subjects
(26.3%) had mild depression, 24 subjects (21.1%) had moderate depression 36 subjects (31.6%)
had severe depression.
The unemployed caregivers were severely affected by depression and the educated caregivers
were less depressed and experienced less subjective burden. Household interactions and
relationship with children were of great concern to the caregiver as they contributed to subjective
burden. Social life and leisure was greatly affected as the caregivers had to spend most of the
time with the offspring and this limited their time to interact at community level or even going
for holidays.
CONCLUSION
Family caregivers are at risk of developing depression and burden of disease as a consequent of
taking care of their children suffering from mental retardation.
Majority of the respondents (79%) had clinically significant depression symptoms while 21%
had minimum depression.
Citation
Degree in Master of Science in Clinical Psychology of The University of Nairobi, 2008Publisher
University of Nairobi. Department of Psychiatry