Extended Abstract
1. Objectives
Caring for stroke survivors, due to their excessive demands, may create or exacerbate several physical and mental conditions for family caregivers. Therefore, the present study aims to determine the mean and standard deviation of the general health of family caregivers of stroke survivors and its subscales by men and women, as well as the relationship between the mean rate of general health or its subscales and demographic characteristics of family caregivers of a stroke survivor. Based on the findings, the factors related to the general health of the caregivers of stroke survivors can be identified. Thus, the authorities of this area can take necessary steps to control the side effects of neglecting the general health of caregivers of stroke survivors, which can affect the different dimensions of their lives.
2. Methods & Materials
A descriptive-analytical study was carried out by available sampling method on 60 family caregivers of stroke survivors referred to the outpatient clinics of Sina and Firoozgar Hospitals in 2015. Participants were the family caregivers aged at least 15 years and the stroke survivors aged over 50 years with 6 months after their stroke. The caregiver must not care any other patient than the stroke survivor. The data collection tool in this study was a two-part questionnaire. The first part was demographic data of caregivers, and the second part included a 28-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). The 28-item GHQ was first created by Goldberg in 1978 and consists of four 7-questions scales including physical scale, anxiety scale, social scale, and depression scale [1].
The validity of this questionnaire has been investigated and confirmed in previous studies. The reliability of this test in research conducted in Iran was 0.85 using alpha coefficient [4]. After getting the approval of the ethics committee of the research deputy of the University of Well-being and Rehabilitation Sciences in Tehran and presenting the official letter to the head of Sina and Firoozgar Hospitals in Tehran, the researcher went to the medical records department of the hospital to find the telephone numbers and addresses of the caregivers. Then, the researcher, in coordination with the caregivers, visited the caregivers in person or spoke over phone to them on various days and at different hours. After providing the necessary explanations, assuring the confidentiality of their personal information, and obtaining written informed consent all the questionnaires were completed by the researcher through the interview. For statistical analysis, SPSS 15, as well as descriptive and inferential statistics including mean, standard deviation, Chi-square, and U-Mann-Whitney U-test were used. The significance level of all the tests was considered to be less than 0.05.
3. Results
A total of 60 participants were included in this study. The mean age of the caregivers was 46.5±17.3 years. Among them 43.3% were in the range of 31-59 years, 33.3% had a high school diploma, 65% were women, 46.7% were spouses, 71.7% were married, and 75% were unemployed. In 90% of the caregivers, the duration of care for stroke survivors was greater than 6 months, and 51.7% of the patients needed around-the-clock care.
The overall mean score of the general health of the caregivers was 61.41±14.9, which was greater in women (63.07±16.09) than in men (33.58±12.28). It implies that women have problems with their general health. The mean score of general health sub-scales by gender is presented in Table 1. The results of Mann-Whitney U-test and Chi-square test showed a significant relationship between total score of general health and job status, age group, or care status (P=0.01). Moreover, there is a significant relationship between physical health scale and age or care status (P=0.01). Significant relationship also exists between the social scale of health and job status (P=0.01), age group (P=0.33), educational status (P=0.01), or care status (P=0.01). The relationship between the depression scores and caregivers’ care status also found to be significant (P=0.01).

4. Conclusion
The findings of this study indicate that people who care for stroke survivors show a significant decline in their general health dimensions. Regarding the worsening of general health conditions in older caregivers, it is recommended to plan for the necessary social support from family caregivers by the policy makers in the field of health and treatment. The findings of this study also suggest the importance of the relationship between some demographic variables and the general health of family caregivers, which could provide information for developing strategies to improve the general health of family caregivers. Taking into account the cross-sectional nature, the location and sampling method of the study, and the lack of significant relationship with some of the demographic variables the generalization of the findings should be made cautiously. Therefore, studies with greater sample size in other areas are suggested, and the relationship between general health level and variables like gender and family relationship should be re-examined.
Acknowledgments
This research was extracted from the MSc. thesis of the first author in Department of Nursing, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, and has been financially supported by the so-called University.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.

 

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