title: [Correlation between severe ALS patient-caregiver couples' characteristics and caregivers' health related quality of life].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The support systems for caregivers considering caregiver characteristics such as demographics and burden should be implemented to improve the HRQoL of caregivers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Pukyong National University, Busan, Korea. kanosa@pknu.ac.kr
authors.forename: Myoung Soo
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hyung-Ik
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Yusun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Min
authors.forename: Jung Yoon
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jung Soon
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000523:psychology*; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003858:Dependency, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D012122:Ventilators, Mechanical