Additional burdens of family caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative analysis of social media in Germany.
Jana Fieselmann, Diana Wahidie, Yüce Yilmaz-Aslan and 1 others
PMID 35289050WHAT IT FOUND
Family caregivers in Germany posted about added burdens during the pandemic: lost day care, work-care conflict, fear of infecting relatives, scarce masks, and unclear rules.
These were self-reported social media experiences, not measured patient outcomes.
Key findings
01Analysis of 237 German-language social media posts identified seven burden categories for family caregivers during the pandemic.
02Caregivers described lost day care, short-term care, and therapy services, leaving them to provide care alone while trying to work.
03Posts reported fear of infecting care recipients and difficulty obtaining masks, gloves, and other protective materials.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The posts came from publicly accessible Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube comments, not from closed caregiver groups. The paper describes posts from March to December 2020 but says only posts until August 12, 2020 were considered. Social media users are usually younger than most family caregivers, so the posts may not represent the whole caregiver population. One author coded the posts, so category meanings may reflect that person's interpretation. The study did not stratify by age, disability, severity, or socioeconomic status. Posts were selected by search terms, so relevant posts not using those terms may have been missed.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat these posts as representative of all German family caregivers. The users were mostly on social media and the study did not stratify by age, disability, severity, or socioeconomic status.