Influência das orienta？？es fisioterapêuticas na qualidade de vida e na sobrecarga de cuidadores

introduction: the caregiver's unpreparedness can lead to risky situations for caregivers and for those who receive the care. objective: to assess the impact of the physiotherapeutic guidelines on quality of life and overload of informal caregivers of patients with spinal cord injury or stroke disabilities. materials and methods: twelve female informal caregivers, mean age 50,5 ± 16,5 years old. four were caregiver from patients with disability caused by spinal cord injury and 8 by stroke. all patients were in physical therapy. at the first meeting, the caregivers received a notepad to write down their daily difficulties. after a week, they returned the notepads. on this day we assessed the quality of life, using the sf-36, and the overload, using the questionnaire for assessment to informal caregiver overload. two weeks later, we prepared a theoretical and practical class based on the notes and the questionnaires scores. after 4 weeks, the caregivers were assessed again using the baseline instruments. to compare pre and post intervention was used paired t-test (p < 0,05). results: the doubts were about the patient's bath and their own physical and mental health. there was no increase in quality of life (p = 0.1226). only for the domains of pain (p = 0.0316) and mental health (p = 0.0029) was observed a significant difference. there was no difference in caregiver overload. conclusions: an intervention with physical therapy guidelines reduced pain and improved mental health in informal caregivers of patients with spinal cord injury or stroke disabilities.