Fatigue

Objectives To explore the associations between stress, sleep disturbances, fatigue severity and social support among primary family caregivers in intensive care units during the early period of ICU hospitalisation.Design Cross-sectional, descriptive correlational study.Setting Intensive Care Units in a teaching hospital in Taiwan.Main outcome measures Perceived stress (Impact of Events Scale-Revised), sleep disturbances (General Sleep Disturbance Scale), fatigue severity (Lee’s Fatigue Scale), social support (Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire) and one op

Because of the trend toward shorter hospital stays, family caregivers of stroke survivors are expected to accept more responsibility for helping survivors during the subacute recovery process. The caregiver role is associated with negative health outcomes, yet existing literature differs on whether work status is a contributor. The purpose of this secondary analysis was to examine how caregiving affects employment and to compare characteristics of working and nonworking caregivers.