Factors associated with health‐related quality of life among family caregivers of people with Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Aim Based on the ageing population and the inadequate healthcare system in China, the majority of care for patients with Alzheimerʼs disease (AD) is provided by family caregivers. Caregivers suffer a long‐term heavy care burden and pressure, which affects their physical and mental health. The present study aims at investigating health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) among family caregivers of AD patients and exploring its influencing factors. Methods This study included 206 family caregivers (76 male, 130 female) of AD patients recruited from one Tier 3 hospital, one psychiatric hospital, two gerocomiums and three communities in Ganzhou city, Jiangxi Province, China. Measures included the World Health Organization (WHO) Quality of Life (WHO/ QOL‐BREF) questionnaire, Zarit burden of care scale (ZBI), and social support rating scale (SSRS).We performed face‐to‐face or telephone interviews with patients and caregivers. The association between possible factors and changes in HRQOL was examined through stepwise multiple regression analysis. Results The majority of family caregivers felt moderate to severe level of burden. The average HRQOL score was 54.24 ± 10.36. The mean SSRS score was 30.4 ± 10.9. The average ZBI score was 41.2 ± 12.8. The HRQOL of family caregivers of AD patients was negatively correlated with the neuropsychiatric questionnaire score, ZBI score, and chronic diseases of caregivers (P < 0.05), and positively correlated with the SSRS score (P < 0.05). Conclusion Reduced QOL was highly prevalent among AD patient family caregivers, and the level of burden, neuropsychiatric symptoms of patients, social support, and chronic diseases of caregivers were factors associated with HRQOL, and the effect of care burden is greatest. Interventions aimed at reducing the level of burden should focus not only on the patient but also on the caregiver.

Behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and family caregiver burden: a path analysis

“…Heavy burden and stress among caregivers who take care of dementia patients can lead to poor QOL of AD patients [55]. A correlation was observed between caregiver burden and QOL [56] because BPSD and caregivers' burden have an effect on the QOL of the caregiver [48,57]; adequate coping strategies for reducing the burden and stress are required for improving the QOL of the caregiver [58]. In particular, Korean dementia families tend to use passive attitudes, avoidance, and anger [59]; therefore, they need an active intervention to train their families' effective problemoriented coping.…”

Impacto emocional da doença de Alzheimer para familiares do doente e como o diagnóstico afeta as atividades diárias: revisão integrativa

“…A maioria dos estudos incluídos foram publicados no ano de 2020, idioma inglês e português. Em relação ao tipo de estudo, foram classificados como estudo de coorte (Liao et al, 2020;Corrêa et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2018), estudo transversal (Hernandez-Padilla et al, 2021;Manzini et al, 2020;Scott et al, 2018), estudo qualitativo e quantitativo (AboJabel et al, 2021;Hazzan et al, 2020;Césario et al, 2017); revisão da literatura e sistemática (Dadalto et al, 2021;Luiu et al, 2020), estudo descritivo e exploratório (Garcia et al, 2017), estudo multicêntrico (Rainero et al, 2020), estudo longitudinal (Esandi et al, 2021) e revisão de escopo da literatura (Lee et al, 2019).…”

Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Parkinson’s Disease Patients Are Associated with Reduced Health-Related Quality of Life and Increased Caregiver Burden

“…Neuropsychiatric symptoms impact on both the patient’s HR-QoL and caregiver burden in PD and other neurodegenerative diseases [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ]. For instance, neuropsychiatric symptoms were identified to lead to higher caregiver burden and reduced HR-QoL in caregivers taking care of people with Alzheimer’s Disease [ 21 ].…”

“…Neuropsychiatric symptoms impact on both the patient’s HR-QoL and caregiver burden in PD and other neurodegenerative diseases [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ]. For instance, neuropsychiatric symptoms were identified to lead to higher caregiver burden and reduced HR-QoL in caregivers taking care of people with Alzheimer’s Disease [ 21 ]. In Huntington’s Disease, depressive symptoms of the patient along with apathy are predictors for reduced HR-QoL and increased caregiver burden, as reported in the past [ 22 , 23 ].…”