Satisfaction with gastrostomy feeding in caregivers of children with home enteral nutrition: application of the SAGA-8 questionnaire and analysis of involved factors.

Abstract

Aims: To assess the degree of satisfaction of caregivers of children with gastrostomy tube (GT) feeding through the structured questionnaire SAGA-8. Secondly, to evaluate if the parental satisfaction degree was related to several independent variables. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was performed in 92 caregivers of children with GT feeding and chronic diseases. The following data was obtained: caregiver satisfaction with GT feeding (SAGA-8), age at GT placement, anthropometric data, length and mode of nutritional support, family demographic characteristics and caregiver psychological status. Results: All primary caregivers were mothers. High satisfaction with GT feeding was expressed by 82.6% of families. The simplicity of the system was emphasized by 87%, and 85.9% were very satisfied with the support received from the hospital staff. 73.9% of mothers acknowledged their child"s nutritional status had improved and 89.1% rated the enhancement family"s overall situation. Moreover, 75% of mothers reduced feeding-time, and 68.5% reported less respiratory infections. Finally, 71.7% of mothers recognized that they would have implemented this technique earlier. Caregiver satisfaction was positively correlated with age at GT placement and length of treatment, and both variables explained the 19.4% of the satisfaction variance. No correlation with anthropometric data, nutrition support mode, family demographic characteristics or caregiver psychological status was observed. Conclusions: The SAGA-8 questionnaire is a simple,specific, straight-forward tool to evaluate parental/caregiver degree of satisfaction with GT feeding and facilitates effective monitoring of the intervention. Lengths of HEN and precocious age at GT placement are responsible for most of parental satisfaction.