Caregiver burden and health-related quality of life: A study of informal caregivers of older adults in Ghana.

Abstract

Similar to many developing countries, caregiver burden remains high in Ghana which may affect informal caregivers of older adults' health-related quality of life (HRQoL). However, no study has examined the association between caregiver burden and HRQoL among informal caregivers of older adults in Ghanato date. Understanding this association may well help to inform health and social policy measures to improve HRQoL among informal caregivers of older adults in Ghana. Situated within a conceptual model of HRQoL, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between caregiver burden and HRQoL among informal caregivers of older adults in Ghana. We obtained cross-sectional data from informal caregiving, health, and healthcare (N = 1853) survey conducted between July and September 2022 among caregivers (≥ 18 years) of older adults (≥ 50years)inthe Ashanti Region of Ghana. The World Health Organization Impact of Caregiving Scale was usedto measure caregiver burden. An 8-item short form Health Survey scale developed by the RAND Corporation and the Medical Outcomes Study was used to measure HRQoL. Generalized Linear Models were employed to estimate the association between caregiver burden and HRQoL. Beta values and standard errors were reported with a significance level of 0.05 or less. The mean age of the informal caregivers was 39.15years and that of the care recipients was 75.08years. In our final model, the results showed that caregiver burden was negatively associated with HRQoL (β = - .286, SE = .0123, p value = 0.001). In line with the conceptual model of HRQoL, we also found that socio-economic, cultural, demographic and healthcare factors were significantly associated with HRQoL. For instance, participants withno formal education (β = -1.204, SE=.4085, p value =0.01), those withprimary level of education (β = -2.390, SE=.5099, p value =0.001) orjunior high school education (β = -1.113, SE=.3903, p value= 0.01) hada significantly decreased HRQoLcompared to those with tertiary level of education. Participants who werebetween the ages of 18-24 (β = 2.960, SE=.6306, p value=0.001), 25-34 (β = 1.728, SE=.5794, p value=0.01) or 35-44 (β = 1.604, SE=.5764, p value= 0.01) years significantly had increased HRQoLcompared to those who were 65 years or above. Also, participants who did not utilize healthcare services in the pastyear before the survey significantly had increased HRQoLcompared to those who utilized healthcare services five or more times in the pastyear (β = 4.786, SE=. 4610, p value=0.001). Consistent with our hypothesis, this study reported asignificant negativeassociation between caregiver burden and HRQoL. Our findings partially support the conceptual model of HRQoLused in this study. We recommend that health and social policy measures to improve HRQoL among informal caregivers of older adultsshould consider caregiver burden as well as other significant socio-economic, cultural, demographic, and healthcare factors.