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Material and Method: The study design was a cross-sectional descriptive research. The demographic data of 52 stroke patients with spasticity and their caregivers at Songklanagarind Hospital in Thailand were recorded. The Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) in the Thai version measured the caregiver burdens. The modified Barthel Index (BI) evaluated the bADL of the patients. The correlation between the ZBI and modified BI were calculated by The Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (rs) with p<0.05 considered as a significant level.
Results: The caregivers were mainly female (80.8%) who felt no burden (57%). The ZBI score did not significantly relate to the modified BI in either the activity or total score. However, the ZBI score was significantly associated to the caring hours per day (median 14 hours/day, rs = 0.37, p = 0.007) and left hemiparesis (p = 0.03).
Conclusion: Most caregivers realized that stroke survivors with spasticity were not a burden. There was no relationship between the caregiver burden and the bADL of the patients, but the burden was related to daily caregiving hours and stroke that affected the left side of the body.
Keywords: Stroke, Spasticity, Caregiver burden, Activities of daily living