Estudo de adaptação e validação da escala de avaliação de cuidado informal

I. Martín¹, C. Paul¹, & J. Roncon²

¹Instituto de Ciências Biomedicas Abel Salazar

²Instituto de Ciências da Saúde do Norte

 

Resumo: Diferentes escalas têm sido desenvolvidas com o objectivo de avaliaras consequências a nível psicológico do papel de cuidador informal de pessoas funcionalmente dependentes. Este trabalho trata da adaptação de uma dessas escalas, a Escala de Avaliação de Cuidado Informal (Caregiving Appraisal, Lawton et al., 1989) à população portuguesa. A escala foi administrada a 130cuidadores informais, primários, de idosos com diferentes graus de disfuncionalidade. Esta população era caracterizada do ponto de vista sócio-demográfico por uma preponderância de mulheres (93,1%) e filhos/as (50,8%). As características psicométricas da escala respeitam a estrutura original com três subescalas: (i)sobrecarga subjectiva, (ii) satisfação do cuidador e (iii) impacto do cuidado. Os índices de fidelidade mostram pontuações elevados excepto na subescala de cansaço subjectivo. Implicações para a investigações sobre o impacto no cuidado informal são discutidas.

Palavras chave: Cuidado informal, Sobrecarga, Escala de avaliação, Idosos, Dependência.

 

Adaptation and validation of a scale of care giving appraisal for a Portuguese sample

Abstract: Different scales have been developed by researchers in order to measure the psychological burden of informal care giving of dependent persons. This work is about the adaptation for Portugal of the Care giving Appraisal (Lawton et al., 1989). The scale was administrated to 130 primary care givers of elderly persons with different degrees of functionality. Mostly women (93.1%) and sons/daughters of the elder (50.8%) constituted this sample. The psychometric characteristics of the scale are similar to the original one, with three sub-scales: i) subjective caregiver burden; ii) caregiver satisfaction; iii) care giver impact. The fidelity shows high values except for the sub-scale of subjective caregiver burden. The importance of this scale to study the impact of care giving is discussed.

Key words: Informal care, Caregiver burden, Elderly, Dependence, Measurement.

 

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