Caregiver Burden among Peritoneal Dialysis and Hemodialysis Family in Saudi Arabia

Objectives: Dialysis patients often depend on family caregivers to assist them with their daily life activities and medical needs. Since few studies were conducted, we compare the quantitative burden on family caregiver between hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) in Saudi population. Design: This cross-sectional study was performed by applying Zarit Caregiver burden interview (ZBI) Subject: Fifty HD and 55 PD Saudi caregivers (from July 2010 till July 2011) Setting: King Saud University affiliation hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Results: In both dialysis therapies, the caregivers were mostly female comprising 35 (70%) HD and 43 (78.2%) PD with p = 0.338. Mean caregivers' age in HD was 40.6 (11.0) while PD was 37.5 (9.1) years with p = 0.178. The total burden in caregivers of PD group was 49.9 (24.5) which is higher than HD group 43.3 (21.7), with p = 0.15. The caregiver burden score is highly significant with patients' age in both dialysis (p <0.01) but negatively correlated with patients' level of education (p = 0.05) in hemodialysis only. The caregiver burden score showed high correlation with caregiver education (p <0.01) and age in hemodialysis only (p <0.01). Conclusion: The caregiver burden among PD and HD family ranked from moderate to severe burden. The correlation between caregivers' burden scores and caregivers' education, caregivers' age and patients' education are negatively correlated only in HD. However, the correlation between caregivers' burden scores and patients' age are significant in both HD and PD.