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

This study compared key correlates of caregiver stress in 50 Alzheimer's di sease patients and their primary caregivers, in relation to three outcome m easures - 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 S ocial Support Appraisal Scale. Patients' cognitive, functional, and behavio ural status were rated on Mini-Mental State Examination, Blessed-Roth Demen tia 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 R-2 = 0.45). Weil-being was signific antly related to behaviour disturbance, and also to functional status (adju sted R-2 = 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 R-2 = 0.14 ). These findings highlight differences in factors determining caregiver Qo L, burden and well-being.