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Abstract
The carers of home dialysis patients often play a major role in the patient's general well-being. However, the well-being of the carers themselves should also not be overlooked. There is a need to gain a better understanding of the factors which contribute to the overall levels of negative affect amongst home dialysis carers. The direct effects of patient health factors (namely disease severity and functional impairment or disability) and carer cognitive factors (namely carer locus of control and choice of coping strategies) were examined on carer negative affect. Moreover, a cognitive mediational model, which proposed that the carer cognitive factors serve as mediator variables, was tested. Questionnaires were administered to 38 home dialysis patients and their carers. Of this sample, 15 patients were on home haemodialysis and 23 on peritoneal dialysis. The patient's level of functional impairment was found to have a significant impact on the carer's affect. As hypothesised, even when controlling for patient health factors, carers with an external locus of control tended to report heightened negative affect, as did carers who made greater use of emotion-focused coping strategies. The results lend some support for a mediational model, however require replication with a larger sample size. Tentative implications for early intervention programs for carers who are "at-risk" of poor adjustment are discussed.