Needs of family caregivers of stroke patients: a longitudinal study of caregivers’ perspectives

Pei-Chun Tsai,1 Ping-Keung Yip,2 John Jen Tai,3 Meei-Fang Lou11School of Nursing, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 2School of Medicine, 3Department of Statistics and Information Science, College of Management, Fu-Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City, TaiwanBackground: After a stroke, patients often suffer from varying degrees of disability that require acute inpatient treatment and extended care at home. Therefore, the caregivers assume multiple responsibilities that can result in stress, particularly when their own needs are inadequately addressed during the patient’s recovery.Objectives: This studyaimed to explore the changing needs of family caregivers of stroke patients and factors related to the needs in four stages, before the transfer from intensive care unit to neurological unit, before discharge, 2weeks post-hospitalization, and 3months post-hospitalization.Methods: The design of this study was based on longitudinal research, and the participants were family caregivers of stroke patients. Sixty family caregivers were recruited in this study. Data were collected at four time points by questionnaire.Results: We found that the total number of needs of family caregivers decreased as the illness duration increased and that needs differed significantly between the four time points (P