Measuring the impact on relatives of caring for people with Alzheimer's disease: Quality of life, burden and well-being

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Abstract
This study compared key correlates of caregiver stress in 50 Alzheimer's disease patients and their primary caregivers. in relation to three outcome measures - perceived burden, psychological well-being, and quality of life (QoL). These were evaluated using the Zarit Burden Interview. General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30), and Schedule for the Evaluation of Individual QoL (SEIQoL-DW) respectively. Informal social support was evaluated on Vaux's Social Support Appraisal Scale. Patients' cognitive. functional, and behavioural status were rated on Mini-Mental State Examination, Blessed-Roth Dementia Scale. and Baumgarten Dementia Behaviour Disturbance Scale respectively. Standardised multiple regression analysis was used to compare the outcome measures. In this model burden was highly related to behaviour disturbance. and also to social support (adjusted R2 = 0.45). Well-being was significantly related to behaviour disturbance, and also to functional status (adjusted R2 = 0.40). With regard to QoL the model performed poorly as most of the variance in QoL was not accounted for by the model (adjusted R2 = 0.14). These findings highlight differences in factors determining caregiver QoL. burden and well-being.