Role of Coping Strategies in the Mental Health and Quality of Life of Caregivers of the Patients of Chronic Illness

The aim of the study was to determine the role of coping strategies in mental health and quality of life of Caregivers of Chronically ill Patients. The two chronic illnesses selected for the present study were Liver Cirrhosis and Ischemic Heart Disease. The sample consisted of N=202 primary caregivers (Men =117; Women =85). Data for caregivers of Liver Cirrhosis patients was collected from Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore and for Ischemic Heart Disease from The Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Lahore. Age range of caregivers was from 15-60 years. Purposive sampling was used. To fulfill the objectives of the study Pearson Product Moment Correlation, Chi-square and Multiple Regression were used. Three scales other than demographic sheet namely Urdu version by Akhtar (2005) of Brief Cope developed by Carver (1989) and Urdu version by Khan, Akhtar, Ayub, Alam, and Laghari (2003) of WHO-Quality of Life Questionnaire developed by Power, (2003) and Urdu version of General Health Questionnaire-28 by (Sanam,2001) developed by Goldenberg (1978) were used. Results indicated mental health and positive coping had inverse significant relationship. Multiple regression analysis showed impact of coping styles on quality of life among caregivers of chronically ill. Cross tabulation revealed an association between coping styles and demographic variables such as education, marital status, parent's education, disease and birth order.