Abstract

Background: The rate at which partners are facing various challenges of caring for their spouses with chronic illnesses is becoming very alarming. Non-communicable diseases (NCD) such as diabetes, cancer, respiratory diseases, kidney and cardiovascular diseases which are chronic diseases are the leading cause of death globally. Marriages faced with any of these conditions expose their spouses to a lot of challenges in their daily life. The aim of this study was to evaluate the challenges faced by spouses caring for partners with chronic illness in a poor resource setting.

Method: This was a cohort longitudinal study. A descriptive design with a qualitative approach was adopted for the study. A purposive and simple random sampling technique was used in selecting 30 thirty partners who were caring for chronically ill spouses. The target population were spouses aged 50 and above. The interview was recorded, transcribed and analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

Results: The results of the findings of the study indicated that; daily life demand, copping with the chronic illness and leisure time for the spouse were the major challenges of spouse support and care of partners with chronic illness.

Conclusion: The burden of non-communicable diseases which gradually resulted in chronic illness poses serious challenges to spouse support and care of partners with chronic illnesses in Nigeria and it is gradually increasing globally. Based on the findings of this study; daily life demand, copping with the chronic disease and partners leisure time were the major challenges faced by the partners whose spouses suffer from chronic illness.

Keywords: Challenges; Spouses Support and Care; Chronic Illness

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