**8. Instrument and measures**

Structured questionnaires were the instrument for data collection, two versions of the questionnaire was developed: the English version and the Efik version (local dialect). The Efik version was translated from English into Efik and back-translated into English by experts to prevent loss of meaning. The researcher and trained field assistants helped with data collection through face to face contact, however some questionnaires were deposited with the caregivers who filled and returned within 1 week. The structured questionnaires consisted of 41 items, 7 demographic variables, 22 from Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) scale and 12 measuring social support. Reliability of the instruments was attained through test–retest method. The questionnaires were administered to 10 caregivers of PLWHA in Calabar South. After 2 weeks the same questionnaire was administered again to the same subjects. Their responses during the two occasions were correlated using Pearson product-moment correlation to obtain a reliability coefficient ranging from 0.85 to 0.96.

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*The Exceptional Role of Women as Primary Caregivers for People Living with HIV/AIDS…*

Seven items make-up the demographic variables which included: participant's age, marital status, their current occupation, highest educational qualification, household income level, number of people in the household and duration of care. Duration of care was categorized into two namely: hours spent per day and years spent as a caregiver of PLWHA. Duration of care was predefined for the caregivers.

The Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) scale is a caregiver self-report questionnaire consisting of 22 items. Each item reflected the impact that patient disabilities have in the caregiver's life. The caregiver endorsed the degree of physical, emotional and social discomfort experienced on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from never, rarely, sometimes, quite frequently, or nearly always. The 22 items validated ZBI scale had reliability coefficient ranging from 0.88 to 0.92. Scores ranged from 0 to 88 and a

The support questionnaire contained 12 items which assessed the extent of support received in the form of information, financial help, emotional support as well as physical help with caregiving activities. The instrument was pilot tested with a reliability coefficient of 0.85 to 0.96. Caregivers indicated the extent of support received on a 4-point Likert-type scale, ranging from lots of support, some support,

Descriptive and inferential data were obtained using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 16.0 software) which generated the frequency and percentages of the values. Chi-square test and T-test was used for inferential statistics. The level of significance was also determined at the *p* value of 0.05. The ZBI scale scores ranged from 0 to 88. The scores were categorized into four namely: 0 to 20 represented little or no burden; 21 to 40, mild to moderate burden; 41 to 60, moderate to severe burden; and 61 to 88, severe burden [62]. The support instrument was grouped into two namely: availability of support for "lot of support and some sup-

**Table 1** describes the socio-demographic variables of 260 caregivers of PLWHA who participated in the study. The majority of caregivers were females 199 (76.5%). Age ranged from 10 to 80 years, with majority between 31 and 40 years, however the females formed the majority in all age ranges. Marital status revealed majority (93/35.8%) were single females. The majority (77/29.6%) had tertiary education as the highest educational qualification and (89/34.2%) caregivers were employed, while 60 caregivers left school to care for their loved ones with majority 49 (18.8%)

port," and lack of support for "very little support and no support."

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93670*

high score is associated with higher level of burden.

very little support and no support.

**10.1 Socio-demographic characteristics**

among the female caregivers of PLWHA (**Table 1**).

**9. Demographics**

**9.1 Caregivers burden**

**9.2 Support**

**9.3 Data analysis**

**10. Results**

*The Exceptional Role of Women as Primary Caregivers for People Living with HIV/AIDS… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93670*
