Predictive Factors of Quality of Life for Informal Caregivers of People with Acquired Neurological Disorders (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND The impact of an acquired neurological injury extends beyond the affected individual and may affect the quality-of-life of their caregivers as well. Understanding the protective factors of these aspects is useful to aid in developing health promotion and prevention actions focused on this population. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to check the predictive factors of the quality-of-life of informal caregivers of people with acquired neurological disorders. METHODS This was a cross-sectional and quantitative observational research. Data collection was conducted using an online survey, including questions about the sociodemographic and health data of caregivers, a quality-of-life questionnaire (WHOQOL-Bref), and the Zarit burden scale. The participants were caregivers of individuals with acquired neurological conditions, of any gender and over 18 years of age, who were one of the main caregivers of the ailing person for at least 6 months. The caregivers over 60 years of age, paid, and previously diagnosed with neurological diseases were excluded. A multiple linear regression was modeled for statistical analysis, and a significance level of 5% was considered statistically significant. RESULTS The study involved 144 informal caregivers, mostly women with an average age of 43.7 years. 51.3% were children, with completed higher education and paid employment. 42.36% of the caregivers experienced mild to moderate burden. The predictors of the quality-of-life included the level of burden, sleep difficulties, diagnosis of depression or anxiety, duration of caregiving, patient's use of a feeding tube, and the caregiver's education level. CONCLUSIONS The quality-of-life of primary caregivers is related to the level of burden, sleep difficulties, the use of feeding tubes, and other diagnoses regarding the cared-for patient.