Burden and psychological challenges in caregivers of children with intellectual disabilities in a child neurology clinic in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

Background:

Informal caregivers play an important role but may be strained while providing support for children with Intellectual Disabilities (ID), especially in resource poor nations.

Aim:

The study aimed to determine the severity of caregiving burden among care givers of children with ID and factors associated with such burden.

Methodology:

The study was cross-sectional and descriptive in nature and participants (study group) were caregivers of children with ID attending the clinic at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) while the control group were caregivers of children with acute medical illness. Instruments: included a sociodemographic questionnaire, a questionnaire on mothers attitude to mental retardation, the Zarit burden interview (ZBI) and the Zung self-rating depression scale (ZDS).

Results:

The majority of the caregivers were mothers, 90·6% in the study group and 88·2% in the control group. There were significant differences about the understanding of the illnesses among both cases and controls (P  =  0·011). The caregivers in the study group (chronic cases) had higher mean scores than the caregivers in the control group (acute cases) on the Burden Scale. The difference in mean burden scores between the two groups was statistically significant (P  =  0·016).

Conclusion:

There is a significant burden experienced by Caregivers of children with intellectual disabilities in the study location and this should be a focus of attention for health service providers that may be attending to these children.

Keywords:

• caregiver
• burden
• intellectual disability

Notes on contributor

Correspondence to: Yewande Olufunmilayo Oshodi, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria. Email: [email protected]