Article review
A review of “Depressive Symptoms and health promotion behaviors of African American woman who are family caregivers of Hemodialysis Recipients” By Dina J, Byers, Mona N. Wicks, and Tamara Harris Beard (2011)
The role of African American women to give care to Hemodialysis recipients in America is significant. They give care to recipients of Hemodialysis therapy after suffering from end term renal disease (ESRD).The national alliance for care giving (NAC) estimated that sixty five million adults provide care to an aged relative and the national budget was estimated to be $375 billion as of 2009. Due to the stress and budget accompanied by this profession many of these women develop depressive symptoms, overall health problems and status compared to the non caregivers. This is a great concern for medical practitioners considering the significant role these women play in the society. The authors of this article identified the level of depressive symptoms and the health promotion behaviors of the family caregivers from a study of 75 African American women. This paper reviews the depressive symptoms identified and the intervention nephrology nurses can make and form strategies to improve health promotion among the family caregivers.
This study is also significant since it focuses on the African American women whereas other studies basically focused on Caucasoid women as caregivers. The authors explain the mental health status and health promotion behaviors among these women as not to reflect very high depressive symptoms. The study used a technique known as CES-D to measure the level of depression. Out of a sample of 75, 11 caregivers (representing a percentage of 14.7%) had scores which indicated mild depressive symptoms in the general population. Eleven others had a cut off of 22 to 30 which is 14.7% of the study population indicating moderate distress. Only 3 caregivers had a cut off of above 31 indicating severe distress representing 4% of the population.
The health promotion behaviors reported were categorized into five groups of common behaviors. They focused on nutrition, exercise, stress modifying, spiritual or faith, and following directives and medications from physicians. The results indicated that proper nutrition was the most frequent behavior reported with a percentage of 58.7%. Exercising followed by a percentage of 57.3%, stress modification was further down by 41.3%, spiritual faith was the second last behavior reported with a percentage of 30.7 and the least reported behavior was following orders and medication from physicians with a 25.3% report.
In conclusion, this article gives the recommendation that interventions by nephrology nurses to help manage or decrease are useful for this group. Other interventions should focus on strategies that focus on promoting heath among the caregivers to help them achieve and maintain optimum health. Interventions should also assess the perceptions they have of their health and in effect intervene to reduce the stress symptoms, anxiety levels and improve health promotion strategies. Lastly, the providers of health care should be trained to understand the caregivers in all aspects. The article has developed a report that provide means to develop parameters for early assessment for caregivers at risk, health promotion interventions, and support groups that administer to the needs of the caregivers. Overall this will improve the level of family care given to the recipients of Hemodialysis in the families in America.
References
Byers, D.J., Wicks, M.N., & Beard, T.H. (2011) Depressive symptoms and health promotion behaviors of African-American women who are family caregivers of Hemodialysis recipients Nephrology Nursing Journal, 38(5), 425-430
Belasco, A.G., & Sesso, R. (2002) Burden and quality of life of caregivers for Hemodialysis patients American Journal of Kidney Diseases, 39(4), 805-812.
