The effect of a students led caregiving support program on depression, sleep quality and quality of life of the caregivers and patients with stroke.

PURPOSE: We aimed to provide care support to stroke patients and their caregivers and investigate this support's impact on the psychosocial characteristics of patients', caregivers', and volunteer students' depression, quality of life, and sleep quality.

MATERIAL/

METHODS

Volunteer students received caregiving training and provided support to caregivers at patients' homes. Caregivers received care support through the project for four sessions, once a week. Depression levels were assessed using the Beck Depression Scale, quality of life with RAND-36, sleep quality with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.

RESULTS

The study included 15 patients after stroke, 15 caregivers, and a total of 30 students participated in delivering the intervention. We observed that physical function (d = 0.52) and social function (d = 0.67) showed significant improvements with moderate effect sizes in caregivers. In patients, Energy/Vitality (d = 0.86) showed a significant and large effect size, and pain reduction (d = 0.78) demonstrated a significant, moderate effect size. For students, Emotional Role Difficulty had a significant improvement with a moderate effect size.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, the findings suggest that the project led to meaningful benefits for all involved, particularly in enhancing quality of life parameters. It was found that all participants were extremely satisfied with the study and thought that it should be expanded.