Introduction:

Caregiver burden syndrome has been highlighted as a neglected problem, in which a dependent person's caregiver must change their lifestyle while facing a range of stressors which they cannot always overcome. This leads to a state of physical and mental exhaustion, hindering the caregiver's performance at their work environment.

Objective:

To define the caregiver burden syndrome prevalence among formal caregivers of mentally-ill dependent patients at Clínica del Oriente in the period 2016 II (July-December) and 2017 I (January-June).

Materials and methods:

A descriptive cross-sectional observational study was carried out in a population of formal caregivers of with mental illness institutionalised at either of the two facilities of Clínica del Oriente, La Ceja and El Carmen de Viboral. We used a survey with sociodemographic, clinical and work-related variables, and the Zarit Burden Interview.

Results:

53 caregivers were analysed; 11 had the syndrome (20.8%), 17% had mild burden and 3.8% severe burden.

Conclusion:

The prevalence of caregiver burden syndrome in formal caregivers was lower than found in studies on informal caregivers.

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