Stress and Coping Among Family Caregivers of Patients With Myocardial Infarction - Descriptive Cross Sectional Study

Aim: A descriptive study was conducted to assess the level of stress and coping among family caregivers of patients with myocardial infarction in selected hospitals. Background: Self-care management of myocardial infarction is complex and demanding. Therefore, many patients with heart diseases rely on family members to provide care, such as medication administration, symptom monitoring and management, meal preparation, bathing, and transportation. Family caregivers experience various levels of stress and may seek different strategies to cope with the stress. Influence of stress on the level of coping experienced by the caregivers would help to evaluate and plan effective programmes that address their needs and teach them adaptive mechanism of coping. Methods: A descriptive correlational research design with purposive sampling technique was used to collect data from family caregivers. The study was conducted among100 family caregivers of patients with myocardial infarction for a period of one month. Data was collected by using standardized tools, Appraisal of caregiving scale and Ways of coping scales. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: Two third of the subjects (62) had severe stress and minority (38) had moderate stress on “threat subscale”. Majority of the subjects (90) experienced severe stress on “benign subscale”. More than half of subjects (59) had moderate stress on “benefit subscale”. The coping scores showed that majority of subjects had poor coping in “distancing”(76), “self controlling”(81), “accept responsibility”(98) and “escape Avoidance” (77) subscales, whereas least number of subjects had good coping on “distancing” (7), “seek social support” (7) and “planful problem solving” (10) subscales. A negative correlation exist between the subscales of stress and coping. The “threat subscale” of stress was significantly and negatively correlated with “distancing”(r =-0.335), “self controlling” (r = -0.352), “seek social support” (r =-0.415), “accept responsibility” (r= -0.254), “escape avoidance” (r = -0.298), “planful problem solving” (r =-0.348), and “positive reappraisal” (r =-0.393) subscales of coping. The “benign subscale” of stress was significantly and low negatively correlated with “distancing” (r = -0.234), “self controlling” ( r = 0.245), “seek social support” (r =-0.272), “accept responsibility” (r = -0.272), “escape avoidance” (r = -0.342), “planful problem solving” (r = -0.221) and “positive reappraisal” (r = -0.331) subscales of coping. The “benefit subscale” of stress was Correlated with “distancing” (r = -0.335), “self controlling” (r= -0.323), and “accept responsibility” (r = -0.253) subscales of coping. Conclusion: Findings of the study showed that, family caregivers of patients with myocardial infarction had severe to moderate stress on subscale of stress. Caregiver uses various copying strategies in order to cope up with the stresses of caregiving. A significant negative correlation exists between level of stress and coping among family caregivers of patients with myocardial infarction.