title: Quality of life in patients with PD and their caregiving spouses: A view from both sides.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In contrast to the wealth of studies on quality of life (QoL) in patients with Parkinson's disease, the number of reports on QoL in caregivers, especially partners as primary caregivers, is fairly limited. In this report we wanted to investigate if patients and caregiving partners are able to reliably estimate each other's present and former QoL.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used a visual analogue scale in order to obtain the patients' and their partners' scores of present and former QoL. Moreover we studied correlations of these mutual estimates with demographic variables and measures of patient dependency.
  
  
  RESULTS
  As expected both patients and partners considered their QoL as decreased when compared to former QoL. Interestingly both patients and partners were able to reliably estimate each other's QoL. Patients judged their own former QoL and that of their partner as lower as did their partners. All QoL measures were significantly correlated to measures of mental state and patient dependency. There was a negative correlation with increasing age but not with disease duration.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results indicate the validity of using proxy information by a caregiving partner in estimations of QoL.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Ghent University Hospital, De Pintelaan 185, 1K12, B-9000 Gent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Fien
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Demeulemeester
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Ghent University Hospital, De Pintelaan 185, 1K12, B-9000 Gent, Belgium; Department of Logopaedic/Audiologic Sciences, Ghent University, De Pintelaan 185, B-9000 Gent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Miet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Letter
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Ghent University Hospital, De Pintelaan 185, 1K12, B-9000 Gent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Marijke
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miatton
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Ghent University Hospital, De Pintelaan 185, 1K12, B-9000 Gent, Belgium. Electronic address: patrick.santens@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Santens
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D019727:Proxy; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D064232:Visual Analog Scale
keywords: Caregiver; Parkinson's disease; Proxy information; Quality of life; Visual analogue scale