Background
This study aims to translate the caregiver difficulties scale (CDS) into Turkish language and to reveal its reliability and validity in Turkish informal family caregivers of children with cerebral palsy (CP).
Methods
This study included 130 participants (39.9 ± 7.8 years; range 24–58 years; 106 females and 24 males). Demographic properties of participants, relationship with the care recipient, income, caregiving time, CP type and diseases of the child (e.g., epilepsy, hydrocephalus and congenital heart disease) and the caregiver were recorded. The CDS, caregiver well‐being scale (CWBS), World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL‐BREF) and Beck depression inventory (BDI) were used for data collection. The internal consistency of the CDS was assessed using the calculation of Cronbach's alpha coefficient. A test–retest interval of 2 weeks was used to assess the reliability. The intercorrelation of variables was evaluated using the Spearman correlation coefficient. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to find the predictive power of CDS scores for depression.
Results
A total of 130 family caregivers of children with CP completed the test/retest procedures. The Cronbach alpha coefficients were found as 0.878 for the test and 0.852 for the retest. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) value was found between 0.83 and 0.90 for test–retest reliability of the CDS. In addition, the CDS showed a significantly strong correlation with CWBS‐activities of living subscale and WHOQOL‐BREF psychological, physical and environment domains, as well as a significantly moderate correlation with CWBS basic needs subscale, BDI and WHOQOL‐BREF general health and social domains. CDS scores that are >46 resulted in a sensitivity of 81.48% and a specificity of 73.79% for moderate–severe depression.
Conclusion
The Turkish version of the CDS is a valid and reliable measure for caregiver burden of family caregivers of children with CP.
Acromegaly is a chronic disorder which is characterized by growth hormone (GH) excess. In most of cases, GH hypersecretion is derived from somatotroph cell tumors. Survivin is a member of apoptosis protein family, which was recently showed to be expressed in tissue samples of different benign and malignant human tumors. This study is intended to determine circulating levels of survivin in newly diagnosed acromegaly patients with somatotroph adenomas. 19 newly diagnosed acromegaly patients with somatotroph adenomas were inclu-ded in the study. Concurrently, 19 healthy individuals were included as control group. Serum survivin levels, GH, insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and, some other biochemical parame-ters as fasting glucose, creatinine, alanine aminotransferase, cholesterol, triglyceride, high den-sity lipoprotein cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol were measured in each subject. Correlation analysis was performed between survivin and GH, IGF-1. Serum survivin levels tended to be higher in acromegaly group, but this was not reach statistical significance (p>0.05). Serum survivin levels were comparable among acromegaly patients and controls. Neither GH nor IGF-1 correlated with serum survivin. Larger scale studies are needed concerning the circulating levels of survivin in patients with acromegaly.
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