Introduction {#s0001}
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Home-based care (HBC) programmes throughout the world were found to be effective in easing healthcare institutions such as hospitals of overcrowding, and people who were suffering from chronic illnesses were cared for at home by family members. In the United States, 'most elderly people prefer to be cared for at home even though there is no infrastructure to support the provision of high quality home-based care'.^[@CIT0001]^ HBC in the United States is also referred to 'as informal care because it is provided by relatives, friends and neighbours'.^[@CIT0002]^ The 'burden of care on home-based caregivers is increased by the fact that home-based caregivers come across different problems when caring for homebound seniors with several chronic medical conditions in the home environment'.^[@CIT0001]^ Home-based caregivers in the United States experiencedand the objectives of the study were considered. The questionnaire comprised one section on biography and another section on the impact of caregiving. Participants were informed about the purpose of the study before the questionnaire was administered.

Validity and reliability of the instrument were established in order to ensure the quality of the results. Face, content and construct validity were ensured during the development of the instrument to ensure that the instrument measures the impact of caregiving on voluntary home-based caregivers. The instrument was thoroughly scrutinised by the supervisors of the study and senior members of the University of Venda Higher Degree Committee who gave comments. Comments were used to rephrase and reconstruct the instrument so as to suit the level of understanding of the participants. A test--re-test was