Fragilidade social de cuidadores familiares de pessoas com deficiência física e/ou intelectual e sua relação com a depressão no contexto da pandemia da COVID-19

Abstract

Social frailty is the decline in social relationships and social support that are directly linked to the determinants of the life course, which are age, education, income, gender, ethnicity, marital status, residential environment, lifestyle, life events and biological (GOBBENS, ASSEN, 2010). Thus, the need for care becomes a highly relevant factor to people with disabilities. On the other hand, the observed needs require caregivers, mostly informal, mainly family members. The process of caregiving can generate overload to the caregiver and also symptoms of depression. This process can be intensified due to the social changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate the social fragility of family caregivers of people with physical and/or intellectual disabilities and its relation with depression in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a descriptive, correlational, cross-sectional research with a quantitative approach. Thirty-one individuals from a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), located in the countryside of the State of São Paulo, participated in the research. The instruments Sociodemographic and Economic Characterization, the HALFT scale and the PHQ-2 (Patient Health Questionnaire-2) were applied; Among the results, most were male (56.70%), without a steady partner (61.30%), white (76.70%), with incomplete elementary school education (54.80), 35.5% of the participants self-assessed their health as good. Regarding frailty, 61.5% (n= 19) and 32.0% (n=10) were socially frail and pre frail, respectively. Regarding depression, 35.5% of family caregivers had probable depression. There was strong and statistically significant correlation between HALFT and PHQ-2 (r=0.604; p<0.001). It can be concluded that the level of social fragility and depression of family caregivers of people with Physical and/or Intellectual Disability was high and a strong relationship between social fragility and depression was confirmed.