TY - JOUR
T1 - Care-related quality of life of informal caregivers of stroke survivors
T2 - cross-sectional analysis of a randomized clinical trial
AU - Villa-Garcia, Lorena
AU - Salvat-Plana, Merce
AU - Slof, John
AU - Perez de la Ossa, Natalia
AU - Abilleira, Sonia
AU - Ribo, Marc
AU - Hidalgo-Benitez, Veronica
AU - Inzitari, Marco
AU - Ribera, Aida
PY - 2024/10/4
Y1 - 2024/10/4
N2 - Purpose We aimed to describe the intensity of care and its consequences on informal caregivers of stroke survivors according to the degree of care receivers' functional dependence for activities of daily living; and to identify the factors associated with caregivers' care-related quality of life.Methods Cross-sectional analysis of prospective data collected in a cost-utility study alongside the RACECAT trial in Catalonia (Spain). One-hundred and thirty-two care receiver-caregiver pairs were interviewed six months after stroke. Functional dependence for activities of daily living was measured with the Barthel index. We assessed caregivers care-related quality of life with the CarerQoL, which measures seven dimensions of subjective burden (CarerQoL-7D) and a happiness score (CarerQoL-VAS). We evaluated the association between characteristics of informal caregivers, characteristics of care receivers, and intensity of care, and the caregiver's care-related quality of life (subjective burden and happiness) in a hypothesized model using a structural equation model.Results Of the 132 caregivers, 74,2% were women with an average age of 59.4 +/- 12.5 years. The 56.8% of them were spouses. The care intensity ranged from a mean of 24h/week for mild to 40h/week for severe dependence. Most caregivers (76.3%) were satisfied with their task, regardless of dependence, but showed increasing problems in caring for severely dependent persons. Being a woman (coeff. -0.23; 95%CI: -0.40, -0.07), spending more time in care tasks (coeff -0.37; -0.53, -0.21) and care receiver need of constant supervision (coeff 0.31; -0.47, -0.14) were associated with higher burden of care, irrespective of the degree of dependence. Caregiver burden (coeff 0.46; 0.30-0.61) and care receiver anxiety or depression (coeff -0.19; -0.34, -0.03) were associated with lower caregiver happiness.Conclusions The findings suggest the importance of developing mainly two types of support interventions for caregivers: respite and psychosocial support. Especially for women with high caring burden and/or caring for persons with high levels of anxiety or depression.
AB - Purpose We aimed to describe the intensity of care and its consequences on informal caregivers of stroke survivors according to the degree of care receivers' functional dependence for activities of daily living; and to identify the factors associated with caregivers' care-related quality of life.Methods Cross-sectional analysis of prospective data collected in a cost-utility study alongside the RACECAT trial in Catalonia (Spain). One-hundred and thirty-two care receiver-caregiver pairs were interviewed six months after stroke. Functional dependence for activities of daily living was measured with the Barthel index. We assessed caregivers care-related quality of life with the CarerQoL, which measures seven dimensions of subjective burden (CarerQoL-7D) and a happiness score (CarerQoL-VAS). We evaluated the association between characteristics of informal caregivers, characteristics of care receivers, and intensity of care, and the caregiver's care-related quality of life (subjective burden and happiness) in a hypothesized model using a structural equation model.Results Of the 132 caregivers, 74,2% were women with an average age of 59.4 +/- 12.5 years. The 56.8% of them were spouses. The care intensity ranged from a mean of 24h/week for mild to 40h/week for severe dependence. Most caregivers (76.3%) were satisfied with their task, regardless of dependence, but showed increasing problems in caring for severely dependent persons. Being a woman (coeff. -0.23; 95%CI: -0.40, -0.07), spending more time in care tasks (coeff -0.37; -0.53, -0.21) and care receiver need of constant supervision (coeff 0.31; -0.47, -0.14) were associated with higher burden of care, irrespective of the degree of dependence. Caregiver burden (coeff 0.46; 0.30-0.61) and care receiver anxiety or depression (coeff -0.19; -0.34, -0.03) were associated with lower caregiver happiness.Conclusions The findings suggest the importance of developing mainly two types of support interventions for caregivers: respite and psychosocial support. Especially for women with high caring burden and/or caring for persons with high levels of anxiety or depression.
KW - Economic evaluations
KW - Health
KW - Burden
KW - Scale
KW - Reliability
UR - https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=uab_pure&SrcAuth=WosAPI&KeyUT=WOS:001329362000018&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=WOS_CPL
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0307930
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0307930
M3 - Article
C2 - 39365790
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 19
JO - PloS one
JF - PloS one
IS - 10
M1 - e0307930
ER -