Abstract:
Background: Dementia is one of the leading chronic diseases among older people and it
contributes to disability and particularly dependence. Therefore, patients with dementia need
caregivers to assist in their activities of daily living. Most caregivers are family members and
they are informal. These informal caregivers have to face various types of physical burdens
when caring older people.
Objectives: To explore the perceived physical burden of informal caregivers of patients with
dementia at the Neuropsychiatric clinic in the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL).
Methodology: Twenty informal caregivers who were engaged in caring for dementia patients
for more than six months, purposively recruited for this phenomenological study at the
Neuropsychiatric clinic in the NHSL. Ethical approval was obtained from the National Institute
of Mental Health. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and data analysis was
done using Colalizzi‟s analysis method.
Results: The three themes emerged from the analysis were discomforts and ailments, excessive
daily activities and body weakness due to nutritional imbalances. Sleep disturbances, back pain
with aches and pain of the body and lack of time to take medicines were perceived as reasons
for discomforts and ailments. Getting fed up with a continuous caring process, inadequate time
to rest, having to engage in other household activities were perceived as reasons for the
excessive daily activities. Skipping meals, not having time to consume adequate amount of
meals and imbalance diet caused nutritional imbalances.
Conclusions: These adverse experiences and drawbacks help to understand several hidden
burdens of informal caregivers of patients with dementia. It is needed to ensure the importance
of arranging social support services for informal caregivers which are a neglected area in the
local health system.