الملخص الإنجليزي
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) occurs when a blow or jolt to the head results in damage to the brain. Findings showed that caregivers (CGs) of TBI patients might experience feelings of burden, distress, anxiety, anger, and depression along with the altered nutrition levels. The study examines the nutrition status and burden level of care among TBI caregivers in one of the Tertiary hospital in Oman. The study objectives are to explore the effect of providing care on nutritional intake and Quality of sleep. Three-day intake record, Arabic version of Zarit burden interview and Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were analyzed in caregivers (CGs) of TBI patients (n=25) and compared with healthy volunteers (N=30) This study was carried out in Khoula Hospital, Muscat, Oman and the information was collected directly by dietician through attending the CG in neuron surgical clinic. Super tracker software was used for nutrition analysis. All statistical analysis are done by using Graph Pad prism version 7.0 and level of significant is considered ≤0.05. The ethical approval/patient consent was obtained. The result of this study manifest 54% of caregivers were in unhealthy category of Body Mass Index. The burden level correlated significantly with total carbohydrate intake (p=0.02, r= 0.44) and with poor quality of sleep (p=0.004, R square=0.864). The results of this study showed
that there are no difference in the burden score and total of energy consumption in TBI caregivers. On the other hand, in term of food preference the current results suggest that the TBI CGs were attracted to sugary food and salty food. The majority of TBI CGs exhibited mild and moderated burden level. Among those stressed caregivers, fifty percent suffered from high body weight and only 4% was underweight. Although almost half of TBI caregivers had unhealthy BMI, our study did not find association between burden level and BMI. The level of burden correlated significantly with PSQI and as the burden level increases the quality of sleep deteriorates. However this study has limitation as the the number of samples is low which can't represent the country and extensive studies warranted to be done in more numbers.
