title: Quality of life and factors predictive of burden among primary caregivers of chronic liver disease patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Chronic liver disease increases the socioeconomic and emotional burden on the patient's caregiver. This is important because a patient's adherence to therapy and transplant eligibility is dependent on the caregiver's ability to handle these challenges.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a prospective, cross-sectional study of 50 primary caregivers of patients with advanced liver disease. Caregivers completed the RAND 36-item (Short Form [SF-36]) Health Survey and the Zarit Burden Scale survey. Caregiver quality of life, based on the SF-36, was compared usingt-tests with the scores of the National reference population as controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In our cohort, the mean age of caregivers was 56.9±11.4 years, 40 (83.3%) were female, and 34 (70.8%) were spouses/significant others of the patient. Compared with the adjusted National norm data, caregivers scored substantially lower in categories of role limitations due to emotional problems (P<0.001), vitality (P=0.025), mental health (P=0.005), and social functioning (P=0.002). While the adjusted physical component score of the caregivers was comparable to the National mean, the mental component score (MCS) was lower than the National average (42.4±13.3 vs. 50.0±10, P<0.001). Though only 8 of 50 (16.0%) subjects reported a formal diagnosis of depression or anxiety, 23 (46.0%) had MCS <42, a strong predictor of clinical depression, based on previous studies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Primary caregivers of patients with advanced liver disease have significantly lower SF-36 mental health scores compared with the general population. Comparison of SF-36 scores to caregiver history suggests under recognition of mental health problems in this population.
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of California-Irvine (Douglas L. Nguyen, Daniel Chao, Timothy Morgan), California, USA ; Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, VA Long Beach Health Care System, (Douglas L. Nguyen, Daniel Chao, Grace Ma, Timothy Morgan), California, USA.
authors.forename: Douglas L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of California-Irvine (Douglas L. Nguyen, Daniel Chao, Timothy Morgan), California, USA ; Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, VA Long Beach Health Care System, (Douglas L. Nguyen, Daniel Chao, Grace Ma, Timothy Morgan), California, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chao
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, VA Long Beach Health Care System, (Douglas L. Nguyen, Daniel Chao, Grace Ma, Timothy Morgan), California, USA.
authors.forename: Grace
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of California-Irvine (Douglas L. Nguyen, Daniel Chao, Timothy Morgan), California, USA ; Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, VA Long Beach Health Care System, (Douglas L. Nguyen, Daniel Chao, Grace Ma, Timothy Morgan), California, USA.
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Morgan
keywords: Keywords Chronic liver disease; caregiver burden; depression