Health-Related Quality of Life among Women Caregivers of Older Adults with Dementia

Kim, Myoung Soo; Kim, Dong Hee; Kim, Jung Soon; Park, Kyung Yeon; Park, Nam Hee

Abstract

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to define the predictors of health related quality of life(HRQoL) of women caregivers of the demented elderly patients.
METHODS
The subjects of this study were 140 pairs of patients with dementia and their caregivers. The characteristics of dementia patients and caregivers, Barthel index and SF-36 were measured in this study. T-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and stepwise multiple regression were used for data analysis.
RESULTS
The health related quality of life(HRQoL) score of women caregivers was 288.35+/-66.10 for norm based scoring. HRQoL of women caregivers was correlated with patients' ADL, severity of dementia, caregivers' age, burden, and family support. The major factors that affected the physical components of women caregivers of patients with dementia was the age of the caregiver, burden, and ADL which explained 36.0% of HRQoL. The main predictors of women caregivers' emotional state was the caregiver's burden.
CONCLUSION
Patients' support systems must be implemented to improve the physical HRQoL of caregivers. A caregivers' burden relief program needs to be prepared to increase their emotional HRQoL and further studies and efforts will be needed to evaluate those effects.