A.

Below is a set of data and an excerpt of the

interpretation extracted from the study titled: Caregiving burden and life
satisfaction among family caregivers of persons with mental illness.

One of the objectives of this study is to determine the extent of caregiving

burden among family caregivers of persons with mental illness.

Examine the material and answer the following questions:

1. How was the data presented?
2. What statistics was used to treat the data?
3. What is the level of measurement for the variable Degree of Caregiving
Burden?
4. What paragraph/s can you find level 1, level 2 and level 3 interpretation?

Table 1 presents the extent of burden experienced by the respondents. The

findings show that the group is not equally distributed across the levels of perceived
burden with an inclination toward mild to moderate burden experience (49, 46%). Some
respondents experience moderate to severe burden (44, 41%), while (13, 12%) are
severely burdened in caregiving. The findings imply that burden is evident among the
family caregivers of persons with chronic mental illness.
Table 1
Extent of Caregiving Burden
Degree of Caregiving Frequencies Percentages
Burden
Little or no burden 1 1
Mild to moderate burden 49 46
Moderate to severe burden 44 41
Severe burden 13 12
Total 107 100
Legend: Little or no burden 0-20
Mild to moderate burden 21-40
Moderate to severe burden 41-60
Severe burden 61-88

Mental illness can extract significant cost not only on the patient in terms of
personal suffering but from the family members in terms of burden of care (Awad &
Voruganti, 2008). Severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, major depressive, or
bipolar affective disorders are serious conditions that incapacitate an individual for a
long period of time.
 Filipinos are known for the culture of familism, where the needs of the family take
precedence over the needs of any of the members of the family. In the locality, it was
observed that persons with mental illness often live with their families. Being the front
liners in the care of their sick relative, these family caregivers are exposed to varied
experiences impacting their physical and psychological well-being.
The majority of the respondents have mild to moderate burden, possibly because
of acceptance of their relative’s mental condition and benefits derived from caregiving.
Acceptance enables family caregivers to understand their relative’s dysfunctional
behaviors and provide care unconditionally.

Respondents with moderate to severe burden were found to experience greater

physical strain, constraints in terms of sense of freedom, financial resources as well as
stigma. These caregivers not only perform routine and complex care activities for their
sick relative but also often on a continuous and long-term basis, taking much of the
caregivers’ time and resources that may place excessive demands on human stamina
for serving. In situations of multiple and complex needs, family members are called to
care in ways that are non-normative (Barrett, Hall & Butler, 2014) and without borders
(Barrett, 2014). This scenario often becomes the norm for the caregiver, making his
personal needs secondary only to the needs of their loved ones. The caregiving tasks of
persons with mental illness can be enormous and caregivers may be overwhelmed by
the demands associated with the roles (Adeosun, 2013; Shah, Wadoo &Latoo, 2010).
Woltraus, Diegemans and Scheme (2002) in their study, concluded that positive
symptoms of schizophrenia such as hallucination and delusions, were more
burdensome than other psychotic symptoms. Other studies implicated negative
symptoms such as anhedonia, apathy, social and emotional withdrawal as more
troublesome for some caregivers to deal with (Ukpong, 2012).
The findings imply that family caregivers are indirect patients themselves.
Oftentimes, nursing interventions are focused on the mental health care needs of
psychiatric patients with little or no regard to the mental health needs of their caregivers.
This fragmented approach can increase the vulnerability of caregivers to physical and
psychiatric disorders. The bearer of these consequences, unfortunately, will also be the
patients themselves. Thus, nursing interventions need to focus on the mental health
needs of family caregivers such as regular assessment of psycho-social problems,
assessment for indicators of abuse, prompt crisis interventions and strengthened
referral system from hospital discharge to home and community care.
B. Determine the level of measurement of the following variables:
1. Age
2. Score in a personality test
3. Nutritional status measured as underweight, normal, overweight, and
obese
4. Body mass index
5. Self -efficacy score
6. Degree of depression (mild, moderate, severe)
7. Score in a depression scale
8. Personality type
9. Religion
10. Birth order