TY - JOUR
T1 - Factors related to the quality of life in family carers of people with dementia
T2 - A meta-analysis
AU - Contreras, Milena L.
AU - Mioshi, Eneida
AU - Kishita, Naoko
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: M.L.C.’s PhD studentship is supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Applied Health Research and CARE East of England (ARC EoE), Norfolk and Suffolk Primary and Community Care Research Office and Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of East Anglia. N.K. and research assistant’s time is funded by the NIHR ARC EoE (Grant reference number: DEM-17). E.M. is also supported by the ARC EoE programme.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
PY - 2021/9/1
Y1 - 2021/9/1
N2 - Objectives: This meta-analysis aimed to (1) quantitatively synthesize evidence of factors related to the quality of life (QoL) of family carers of people with dementia and (2) explore moderating factors that may influence the strength of the relationship between such potential predictive factors and carer QoL. Methods: Studies that investigated correlations between patient/carer factors and QoL in unpaid family carers of people with dementia and were published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, or Japanese were included. Results: Thirty-three studies were identified. The pooled correlations with carer QoL (effect size) were significantly large for depression (−0.58), significantly moderate for subjective burden (−0.47), and significantly small for people with dementia’s neuropsychiatric symptoms (−0.24). These results indicated to be robust in the context of publication bias. The results of subgroup analyses demonstrated the social and economic development status of the country where study participants resided did not moderate these effects. Conclusion: Carer depression, subjective burden, and people with dementia’s neuropsychiatric symptoms may play a critical role in maintaining QoL of family carers regardless of the social and economic circumstances.
AB - Objectives: This meta-analysis aimed to (1) quantitatively synthesize evidence of factors related to the quality of life (QoL) of family carers of people with dementia and (2) explore moderating factors that may influence the strength of the relationship between such potential predictive factors and carer QoL. Methods: Studies that investigated correlations between patient/carer factors and QoL in unpaid family carers of people with dementia and were published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, or Japanese were included. Results: Thirty-three studies were identified. The pooled correlations with carer QoL (effect size) were significantly large for depression (−0.58), significantly moderate for subjective burden (−0.47), and significantly small for people with dementia’s neuropsychiatric symptoms (−0.24). These results indicated to be robust in the context of publication bias. The results of subgroup analyses demonstrated the social and economic development status of the country where study participants resided did not moderate these effects. Conclusion: Carer depression, subjective burden, and people with dementia’s neuropsychiatric symptoms may play a critical role in maintaining QoL of family carers regardless of the social and economic circumstances.
KW - Alzheimer’s
KW - dementia
KW - family caregivers
KW - QoL
KW - quality of life
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85084587065&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0891988720924713
DO - 10.1177/0891988720924713
M3 - Article
C2 - 32394770
AN - SCOPUS:85084587065
VL - 34
SP - 482
EP - 500
JO - Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology
JF - Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology
SN - 0891-9887
IS - 5
ER -