Introduction:

Population aging is one of the main issues in public health within developed countries. Informal caregivers play a central role in this scenario, which can affect them negatively.

Objective:

The aim of this study is to identify the needs of informal caregivers related to the care of dependent persons of a Basic Health Area.

Method

Qualitative and phenomenological study. Four informal caregivers in charge of non-institutionalized patients took part. These patients expressed their opinions in a semi-structured interview, that was deductively analyzed afterwards.

Results:

The analysis showed three key subjects: the effects of caregiving (how this task negatively affects the global health of the caregivers); difficulties related to care (related to the process of adaptation once at home, prevention of wounds, accidents and mobility issues), and caregiving learning strategies (by deductive reasoning, observation and formation).

Conclusions:

Caregiving has a negative effect on the caregivers' global health. They show some difficulties in the execution of their tasks, and they declare that they are using various caregiving learning methods. Interventions directed at informal caregivers should include aspects related to health improvement and caregiving training.

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