International Journal of Stroke | 2019
Response to the article “Informal caregivers in stroke: Life impact, support, and psychological well-being—A Swedish Stroke Register (Riksstroke) study”
Abstract
Dear Editor, With great interest, we read the article by Sennfält and Ullberg that reported that the situation of informal caregivers to stroke patients varies greatly with degree of survivor dependency, making generalizations of caregiver needs difficult. We would like to present some discussion points regarding their conclusions. Sennfält and Ullberg showed that 89.6% of informal caregivers to completely dependent patients were unable to follow their own interests; caregivers to partially dependent patients had reduced working hours. Previous research has indicated that they spend >12 h/ day on caregiving in the community. Another study reported that approximately 50% of participants spent over 12 h/day on caregiving. Sennfält and Ullberg also indicated that caregivers spend a lot of time in caregiving. Therefore, we believe that it is important to have a point of view of simple support considering the amount of time on caregiving. Importantly, Sennfält and Ullberg reported the positive experiences related to caregiving in the community. We agree with the authors’ assertions. Previous research has shown relating positive emotion and psychological stress in modified theoretical model of the coping process model. Our study reported that positive emotions reduced caregiver burden in family caregivers of persons with dementia. Therefore, this viewpoint is very useful in supporting the psychological well-being of caregivers to stroke patients. A recent study described a positive emotional support-utilizing technology that may be effective in busy caregivers to stroke patients. Undoubtedly, the study conducted by Sennfält and Ullberg provided useful large sample size data in this regard. In the future, it will be beneficial to focus on the psychological well-being of caregivers to stroke patients.