What Makes it Hard for Caregivers of Stroke Patients for Preventing Dysphagia? In terms of Burden, Knowledge, and Attitude Byeon Haewon Department of Speech Language Pathology, Honam University, Gwangju, 62399, South Korea Online published on 4 June, 2019. Abstract Background/Objectives The objectives of this study were to identify the levels of the caregiver burden, the knowledge of dysphagia management, and the attitude toward aspiration prevention of stroke patients’ caregivers. Methods/Statistical Analysis The subjects of this study were 83 caregivers of stroke patients, who were hospitalized in general hospitals in Seoul and Incheon. The sociodemographic and individual factors related to the dysphagia knowledge of a caregiver was explored by using multivariate regression analysis. Findings The mean score of total burden was 3.83 points out of 5 points. The mean burden of ‘financial status’ was the highest. The results of the knowledge of dysphagia management of stroke patients’ caregivers showed that the mean score was 23.7±7.2: caregiver (22.4 ± 8.5), spouses (20.1 ± 8.1) and children (17.3 ± 4.3). The mean score of the attitude for preventing aspiration toward the dysphagia management of stroke patients’ caregivers was 24.1±6.8: in the order of caregivers (23.2±8.1), spouses (21.7±7.5), and children (18.8 ± 5.2). The results of multivariate regression analysis indicated that the dysphagia knowledge of caregivers was associated with gender(Exp(B)=1.31), age(Exp(B)=4.35), education level (Exp(B)=8.62), and the relationship with a patient (Exp(B)=5.31) even after adjusting all confounding factors. Improvements/Applications The results of this study showed that the main caregiver of a stroke patient suffered from the severe burden and did not have enough knowledge for the dysphagia management and aspiration pneumonia prevention. Top Keywords Knowledge, swallowing disorder, dysphagia, caregiver, Health Belief Model, speech language pathology. Top |