Behind the smile: qualitative study of caregivers' anguish and management responses while caring for someone living with heart failure.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Caregivers support self-management in heart failure but often experience stress, anxiety and ill health as a result of providing care.

Aims

1. To identify the factors that contribute to the experience of anguish.2. To understand how caregivers learn to live with what is frequently a challenging and demanding role.

Methods

Individual interviews with caregivers who had been caring for someone with heart failure for a minimum of 6 months. We used thematic analysis to inductively analyse transcripts.

Results

Twenty-two caregivers, from three centres in the United Kingdom, took part in individual interviews. The caregivers were aged between 39 and 84 years, and six were men. Twenty were in spousal or partner relationships. We found that caregivers often h

SUBMITTER: Wingham J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5577885 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature