An investigation of carers' burden: before and after a total hip replacement

Osteoarthritis in the hip joint is a chronic degenerative condition, causing pain and disability. As the disease progresses, the individual's health deteriorates. This often results in one of the family members having to assume a carer role to assist the care receiver in personal and domestic activities of daily living. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether carers experienced stress from looking after individuals with osteoarthritis who were waiting for a total hip replacement.

The survey was conducted with 23 carers using postal questionnaires before and 3 months after the care receivers had undergone a total hip replacement. It concluded that carers do experience stress from looking after people with osteoarthritis waiting for a total hip replacement and that the carers' stress level was not reduced significantly 3 months after the hip operation. The results of this study have implications for health care professionals who come into contact with this group of carers.