Caregiver burden and health-related quality of life among Japanese stroke caregivers.
OBJECTIVE
the present study had two main purposes: 1. To examine the relationship between caregiver burden and health-related quality of life in family caregivers of older stroke patients in Japan; and 2. To examine which characteristics of the caregiving situation significantly relate to increased burden.


METHODS
subjects (n=100) were recruited from seven randomly selected neurological hospitals with out-patient rehabilitation clinics in western Japan and interviewed using the Zarit Burden Interview, the Modified Barthel Index, the Geriatric Depression Scale and the SF-12 Health Survey for health-related quality of life.


RESULTS
increased caregiver burden was significantly related to worsening health-related quality of life, particularly worsening mental health (Geriatric Depression Scale and SF-12 items), even after controlling for caregiver age, sex, chronic illness, average caregiving hours/day, and functional dependence of the care-recipient.


CONCLUSIONS
findings indicate that increased burden significantly relates to decreased health-related quality of life among stroke caregivers. In addition, the prevalence of depressive symptoms among caregivers was twice that of community dwelling older people. Roughly 52% of caregivers had Geriatric Depression Scale scores that warranted further evaluation. Despite the prevalence of depressive symptoms only one caregiver had received any psychiatric care during their caregiving tenure.
Morimoto
Tomoko
T
Faculty of Health Sciences, Hiroshima International University, Hiroshima Ken, Japan.
Schreiner
Andrea S
AS
Asano
Hitoshi
H
D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003858:Dependency, Psychological; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D020521:Stroke