J Korean Acad Nurs.  2011 Jun;41(3):354-363. 10.4040/jkan.2011.41.3.354.

Correlation between Severe ALS Patient-Caregiver Couples' Characteristics and Caregivers' Health Related Quality of Life

• Kim MS
• Shin HI
• Min Y
• Kim JY
• Kim JS

• KMID: 1015485
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4040/jkan.2011.41.3.354

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the relationship between characteristics of severe ALS patient-caregiver couples and health related quality of life (HRQoL) in family caregivers.
METHODS
The participants in this study were 89 pairs of ALS patients using ventilators and a family caregiver. The characteristics of the ALS patients and caregivers, Korean-Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Functional Rating Scale-Revised, Zarit Burden Interview and SF-36 were measured in this study. The data were collected from August 2008 to April 2009. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients, and canonical correlation were used for data analysis.
RESULTS
The physical component summary and mental component summary of the HRQoL score for family caregivers were 147.49+/-31.63 and 129.09+/-35.83, respectively. HRQoL for caregivers was related to characteristics of the ALS patient-caregiver couples, such as patient's gender, caregiver's age, gender, marital status, daily time spent in caregiving and burden with one significant canonical variable. The significant variate showed that the lower the age, the time spent in caregiving and the burden of caregivers, the higher the HRQoL of caregivers.
CONCLUSION
The support systems for caregivers considering caregiver characteristics such as demographics and burden should be implemented to improve the HRQoL of caregivers.

Keyword

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Quality of life; Ventilator; Caregivers

MeSH Terms

Adult
Aged
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/*psychology
Caregivers/*psychology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Dependency (Psychology)
Female
Humans
Interviews as Topic
Male
Middle Aged
*Quality of Life
Questionnaires
Ventilators, Mechanical

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