Estimating the Social Burden of COVID-19 Among Caregivers of COVID-19 Patients in Punjab, Pakistan

Quantifying the COVID-19 burden is critical to public health response, resource allocation, and policies to mitigate the pandemic, reduce its impact on health and well-being, and ensure recovery and resilience of affected communities. Though a lot of research has been done worldwide on the issues of caregivers during the pandemic, the information about the Pakistani context is not sufficient. The present study aims to explore and quantify the social burden of family caregivers of COVID-19 patients in Pakistan on scientific grounds, which will be a foundation for the policy, support services, and eventually the improvements in the caregivers well-being who are facing the unrepresentative challenges during the pandemic. The present research is a cross-sectional study of family caregivers in Punjab-Pakistan during the pandemic and quantifies the social burden of COVID-19 on caregivers through a 22-item scale developed on a binary response. The study's findings proposed a model of the social burden of caregivers based on five domains . In addition, the study observed significant associations between social burden and some profile variables, such as gender, age, marital status, occupation, income, living arrangements, and caregiving types. The research quantifies the social burden of COVID-19 on family caregivers in Pakistan and will be helpful for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to understand the social challenges caregivers face during the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan.