A problem shared is a problem halved? Comparing burdens arising for family caregivers of patients with disorders of consciousness in institutionalized versus at home care

Table 1 Caregivers and patient demographics for both accommodation groups

	Home care	Institutionalized care
N	37	44
Age of caregiver Mean (SD)	52.35 (14.96)	50.48 (16.64)	t(79) = −0.53 p = .60
Gender of caregiver (male / female)	11 / 26	14 / 30	Fisher’s test p = 1.00
Taking care of: Parent / Partner / Sibling / Own child / Others/ Missing	3 / 18 / 2 / 12/ 2 / 0	4 / 24 / 3 / 12 / 0 / 1	χ² (4) = 2.77 p = .60
Time since event In years, Mean (SD)	9.08 (7.58)	6.70 (4.22)	t(59.6) = 1.71 p = .09
Type of event: TBI / hypoxic / others	24 / 11 / 2	21 / 11 / 12	χ²(2) = 6.79 p = .03
Hours of care per day (SD)	20.12 (7.30)
Have to get up at night (Yes / No / Missing) How often per Month? (Range)	14 / 20 / 3 30 (2 to 100)
Patient often otherwise ill / complications? (Yes / No / Missing)	16 / 21 / 0	25 / 18 / 1	Fisher’s test p = .26

Sample size (N), mean (M), standard deviation (SD). Significant group differences are highlighted in bold. ‘Patient often otherwise ill / complications’ asked caregivers whether their patient has frequent flues, pneumonia, fevers, decubitus, epileptic seizures, or anything that might intensify care burden. The medical complications were analyzed with Fisher’s test in a 2 × 2 matrix (Yes / No)

ISSN: 2050-7283