A qualitative study of family caregiver experiences of managing incontinence in stroke survivors
Journal
PLoS ONE
Journal Volume
10
Journal Issue
6
Date Issued
2015
Author(s)
Abstract
Background: Incontinence is a common problem faced by family caregivers that is recognized as a major burden and predictor of institutionalization. However, few studies have evaluated the experiences of family caregivers caring for stroke survivors with incontinence. Purpose: To describe experiences of caregivers managing incontinence in stroke survivors. Design: This qualitative descriptive study employed a grounded-theory approach. Methods: Semi-structured in-depth interviews with ten family caregivers of stroke survivors with incontinence were conducted during 2011. Audiotaped interviews were transcribed and analyzed using content analysis. Findings: Data analysis identified four themes: chaos, hypervigilance, exhaustion, and creating a new life. There were nine related subcategories: fluster, dirtiness, urgency, fear of potential health-hazard, physically demanding and time-consuming, mentally draining, financial burden, learning by doing, and attitude adjustment. Together, these described a process of struggling to cope with the care of stroke survivors with urinary/fecal incontinence. Of the four categories, "creating a new life" developed gradually over time to orient caregivers to their new life, while the other three categories occurred in a chronological order. ? 2015 Tseng et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
SDGs
Other Subjects
adult; aged; alertness; Article; caregiver; caregiver burden; cerebrovascular accident; clinical article; coping behavior; exhaustion; feces incontinence; female; health care; human; incontinence; life event; male; qualitative research; semi structured interview; urine incontinence; very elderly; caregiver; cerebrovascular accident; complication; Fecal Incontinence; middle aged; psychology; Urinary Incontinence; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Caregivers; Fecal Incontinence; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Stroke; Urinary Incontinence
Type
journal article