Factors affecting the quality of life of family caregivers of patients with heart failure: A cross-sectional study.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Kim, Kyoung-A Park, Jin-Sun Seo, Kyoung-Woo Choi, Eui-Young Ahn, Jeong-Ah
Copyright Year	2022
Abstract	Heart failure is a chronic disease requiring lifetime self-management at home by patients, who often require additional support. However, the long-term nature of this self-management presents great challenges for both heart failure patients and their family caregivers. The role of family caregivers is critical, but little is known about the relationship between the burden, stress, depressive symptoms, and quality of life in the family caregivers of heart failure patients. We aimed to explore caregiver burden, stress, depressive symptoms, and quality of life in both patients with heart failure and their family caregivers and identify the factors associated with family caregivers’ quality of life.The sample included 120 participants (60 heart failure patients and 60 corresponding family caregivers) from cardiovascular outpatient clinics at 2 university-affiliated hospitals in South Korea from September 2018 to July 2019. The mean ages of the heart failure patients and their caregivers were 72.72 (SD = 12.73) and 57.03 (SD = 13.42) years, respectively. Caregiver burden (r = −0.601, P < .001) and caregiver depressive symptoms (r = -0.535, P < .001) were negatively correlated with the caregivers’ quality of life. The result of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis identified 3 significant factors related to the family caregivers’ quality of life: caregiver’s age (β = −0.257, P = .012), caregiver burden (β = −0.408, P = .002) and caregiver depressive symptoms (β = −0.298, P = .018), with overall explanatory power of 47.5%.It is necessary to develop practical strategies to improve family caregivers’ quality of life by alleviating their burden and depressive symptoms. Healthcare providers should be engaged with not only heart failure patients but also their family caregivers during the disease management process to improve patients’ outcomes.
ISSN	00257974
Journal	Medicine
Volume Number	101
PubMed Central reference number	PMC9439723
Issue Number	35
PubMed reference number	36107616
e-ISSN	15365964
DOI	10.1097/md.0000000000030042
Language	English
Publisher	Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Publisher Date	2022-09-01
Publisher Place	Hagerstown, MD
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial License 4.0 (CCBY-NC), where it is permissible to download, share, remix, transform, and buildup the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be used commercially without permission from the journal. Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.
Subject Keyword	burden family caregivers heart failure quality of life stress
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Medicine