Abstract
The burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on society is increasing. Healthcare systems should support patients with COPD in achieving an optimal quality of life, while limiting the costs of care. As a consequence, a shift from hospital care to home care seems inevitable. Therefore, patients will have to rely to a greater extent on informal caregivers. Patients with COPD as well as their informal caregivers are confronted with multiple limitations in activities of daily living. The presence of an informal caregiver is important to provide practical help and emotional support. However, caregivers can be overprotective, which can make patients more dependent. Informal caregiving may lead to symptoms of anxiety, depression, social isolation and a changed relationship with the patient. The caregivers' subjective burden is a major determinant of the impact of caregiving. Therefore, the caregiver's perception of the patient's health is an important factor. This article reviews the current knowledge about these informal caregivers of patients with COPD, the impact of COPD on their lives and their perception of the patient's health status.
Abstract
Informal caregivers play important roles: their needs should be part of research and clinical care for COPD patients http://ow.ly/PSl7F
Footnotes
Support statement: N. Nakken is financially supported by Lung Foundation Netherlands, Leusden, the Netherlands (grant 3.4.12.024), and by a research grant from Boehringer-Ingelheim, the Netherlands. No funding source had any role in the writing of this manuscript or in the decision to submit this manuscript for publication.
Conflict of interest: None declared.
Provenance: Submitted article, peer reviewed.
- Received October 31, 2014.
- Accepted December 11, 2014.
- Copyright ©ERS 2015.
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