Objectives: To study the quality of life related to health and the relationship with the social support, family function and the level of overload for carers of people with a medium/high level of dependence have.
Method: Cross-sectional study of people in Villablino Palacios del Sil making a Dependence Application in 2007. A questionnaire was administered to explore the socioeconomic characteristics, family function (Apgar Family), social support (Duke-UNC), quality of life related to health (Coop-wonca sheeting) and burden level (Zarit) of caregivers. A descriptive analysis was carried out for each one of the variables, and for the bivariate analysis the Spearman rank correlation coefficient, and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used for the continuous variables.
Results: A total of 79.31% of the target population (58 people) answered the questionnaire, with an average age of 55.74 years (standard deviation=11.6), 82.6% (38) women, and 45.7% (21) have a low social support and 76.1% (35) are normal functioning families. A total of 67.4% (31) had an intense burden. There was a statistically positive significant relationship (P<0.05) between the quality of life associated with health and family function and perceived social support, and a negative significant relationship with the burden of the caregiver.
Conclusions: The quality of life related to health in caregivers is better in those with a good social and family support, a good state of health, and they maintained their level of physical activity and positive feelings, but it got worse when the social support decreased and the level of overload increased.