Caracterización sociodemográfica de la atención a los cuidadores primarios de adultos mayores dependientes

Abstract

Introduction:

Sociodemographic changes produce a progressive increase in the dependent population, which is why the figure of the caregiver appears.

Objective:

To describe the sociodemographic characteristics of the attention to caregivers of older adults.

Methods:

A descriptive and cross-sectional observational study was carried out with the main primary caregivers of older adults, belonging to the ¨Ramón López Peña¨ Teaching Polyclinic, in Santiago de Cuba, in the period from January to December 2022. The population studied was 43 caregivers. The data were collected through a questionnaire. For the statistical processing of the information, measures of central tendency of dispersion and distribution of absolute and relative frequencies were used.

Results:

The age group from 50 to 54 years predominated with 25.58%, 74.42% were women, 46.51% were single, 58.13% had basic secondary education, 37.21% were housewives and 41.96% had a low and regular economic income, 53.49% had been performing this role for five years. The prevalence was in 44.18%, four and eight hours of care and 30.24% had no experience as a caregiver, only 6.97% received guidance, 81.39% had no help and 65.11% reported being the only person willing.

Conclusions:

The profile of the caregiver is adult women, housewives, with low education and low or regular economic income. The lack of experience, together with the time of care, little family and social support, condition the overload in the caregiver.