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

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.