Overload in care, stress and impact on the quality of life of surveyed caregivers assisted in primary care

This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study with quantitative approach and population census configured. The instruments used for the implementation of this research were the Inventory of Symptoms of Stress for adults of Lipp, the Functional Independence Measure, the Brazilian version of the quality of life questionnaire SF-36, and the Questionnaire for Assessing the Informal Caregiver Overload. Most caregivers were female (90.9%) with an average age of 51.7 (± 11.0) years; in relation to the degree of relatedness, 45.5% were the subjects’ children, and the Overall Functional Independence Measure of the subjects to whom the care was dedicated was 70.2 (± 40.1). Most caregivers showed stress (81.8%) and reported high overload. A moderate positive correlation (rs = 0.571) between the Functional Independence Measure and Pain (SF-36) was also observed, which was considered to be statistically significant (p = 0.001). To direct the attention to caregivers and understand the physical, social and emotional barriers involved in the action of caring, becomes indispensable in the context of public health not only to provide greater quality of life and lower overload on caregivers, but also on who is being cared.