Introduction:

The prolonged provision of healthcare to functionally dependent persons can result in the deterioration on the caregiver’s quality in terms of family dynamics and overload.

Objectives:

1) To identify the relationship between the family dynamics and the quality of life of the caregiver of older adults; and 2) to estimate the quality of life and the overload of the caregiver of older adults.

Methodology:

This is a descriptive and correlational study with a snowball-derived sample of 86 caregivers in a communitarian center. The corresponding measures were estimated using the Barthel Index, the Family APGAR Test, the Zarit Test, and the WHOQOL-BREF Quality of Life Scale. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Spearman Correlation tests were calculated.

Results:

11.6% of the older adults being cared showed total dependency. 3.5% of the caregiver’s sample perceived having a severe family dysfunction. 32.6% of the sample were found having heavy overloads. 8.1% of the sample perceived having poor quality of life. In all dimensions, the better the family dynamics were, the better the quality of life of the caregivers was (p<.05), and the heavier the overload was, the worse the quality of life of the provider was (p<.05).

Conclusions:

It was noted that both, overload and family dynamics, are related to the quality of life of the caregivers of older adults; therefore, the design of intervention strategies should be focused on the overload and family dynamics of these professionals in order to improve their quality of life.