burnout in the primary caregivers of children with chronic conditions and its related factors

Background: a majority of parents of children with chronic illness encounter physicalconditions, as well as some degrees of burnout, anxiety, and depression. this study examinedthe prevalence of burnout in the primary caregivers of children with chronic conditions and itsrelated factors.methods: a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 385 family caregivers ofchildren with chronic conditions who were selected by convenience sampling method from 4healthcare centers in kashan and isfahan provinces, iran. a demographics questionnaire andthe maslach burnout inventory (mbi) were used to gather the required data. the mbi assessescaregiver burnout in 3 domains of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reducedpersonal accomplishment. the obtained data were analyzed in spss using mann-whitney utest, kruskal-wallis test, chi-squared test, fisher’s exact test, analysis of variance (anova),and linear regression analysis. p<0.05 was considered significant.results: the mean±sd age of the examined caregivers and children were 38.2±8.04 and8.9±4.9 years, respectively. fifty percent of the research participants were fathers, and 74.3% hada family size of >4 members. the ill children were mostly boys (60%) and afflicted with renal(45.2%) or neurological (18.2%) disorders. the mean scores of the caregivers in the 3 subscalesof emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment, were 22.21, 6.40, and13.24, respectively. however, 62.3% and 47.9% of the caregivers experienced high or moderatelevels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization; nearly all of them (99.2%) experiencedreduced personal accomplishment. the age of the child, the type of chronic condition, thefrequency of medical visits, as well as the caregiver’s age, job, income, and family size, couldpredict caregiver burnout (r2=0.17).conclusion: the family caregivers of children with chronic conditions experience moderateburnout. nurses and other healthcare providers should be aware of the signs of caregiver burnoutand its contributing factors; accordingly; appropriate plans should be made for the periodicevaluation of family caregivers.