Burden in caregivers of spinal cord injury patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Caregivers of individuals with spinal cord injury encounter high levels of physical, psychosocial, and financial burden by providing lifelong assistance. In the present study, we aimed to assess the overall burden score of caregivers in spinal cord injury by pooling different standard scores together as a review. Method Search on databases of PubMed/Medline, Web of Science and Scopus was conducted using PRISMA guidelines. Studies that assessed the burden of care using the caregiver burden inventories of CBI (caregiver burden inventory), CBS (caregiver burden scale), CG (caregiver), CSI (Caregiver Strain Index), and short- and long-form Zarit questionnaires were included in our study. The results were analyzed using the meta-analysis method and a random effect pooled estimator. All analyses were performed using STATA SE software version 14. Result A total of 23 articles out of 399 retrieved studies were added to this review study. The overall score of caregiver burden in individuals with SCI was calculated 48.68 (95% CI 42.574-54.788). The I2 heterogeneity was 11.7%, suggesting a low level of heterogeneity among the included studies. There was no systematic difference between various questionnaires added to meta-analysis (P = 0.526). In addition, the caregiver burden did not differ in less and highly developed countries (P = 0.405). Conclusion Since SCI places a considerable burden on caregivers, scoring the burden of care can help policymakers plan for essential interventions and allocate more facilities for these patients and their caregivers.