Socio-cultural factors contributing to role strain among caregivers of P. Oooldren with extreme disabilities at Thika Level 5 Hospital Occupational Care Center, Kenya

Abstract

Background: Caregiver role strain occurs when an individual caring for a child with disability exceeds his/her resources and ability to cope with the demands of the caregiving. Caregivers of children with disabilities repeatedly have feelings of discrimination, stigma and exclusion in many aspects of live. The study aimed to assess caregivers’ role strain in caring for children with extreme disabilities, the psychological strains, economic and social cultural stains of the caregivers.

Materials and Methods: This was a case control study among 75 cases and 75 controls of caregivers at Thika Level 5 Hospital selected using a census sampling technique. Questionnaire was administered to the participants and retrieved immediately after completion. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics on the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 26.0 and the level of statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.

Results: The results indicated that caregivers who were single (OR =1.91; 95%CI: 1.03 – 3.66, p=0.036), caregivers who were looking for alternatives therapies (OR = 0.44, 95%CI: 0.23 – 0.85, p =0.011) and caregivers who stated that families bank on their children for future prosperity (OR =3.42; 95%CI: 1.74 – 6.73, p<0.001) were more likely to have higher role strain.

Conclusions: caregivers who were looking for alternatives for their children with disability were significantly less likely to have higher role strain compared to those who did not. Banking on children for future prosperity and caregivers who considered caregiving as burdensome were significantly more likely to have higher role strain.