Health-Related Quality of Life and Related Factors among Primary Caregivers of Children with Disabilities in Shanghai, China: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Cong Xia,Xiu Gao,Gang Chen,Xinying Li,Mei Sun,Chenhao Lu,Jun Lu

doi:10.3390/ijerph17249299

Abstract

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of caregivers of children with disabilities (CWD) is important for both children’s rehabilitation and caregivers’ life, but the corresponding attention is far from enough in mainland China. Thus, we investigated the HRQOL of 170 caregivers and related factors in Shanghai. The 12-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12) was used to measure HRQOL. The potential factors were collected, including child characteristics, caregiver characteristics, and environmental factors. Univariate analysis and multiple linear regression were performed to identify the key factors that could be intervened. Compared with the general population, caregivers of CWD had a slightly higher score on the physical component summary (PCS, 52.57 ± 8.41), but the score of mental component summary (MCS, 31.58 ± 7.72) was extremely low. Caregiver’s illness condition, family size, and household income were significant factors of physical HRQOL. Caregivers with illness and caregivers living in an extended family were associated with higher mental HRQOL. Whereas these two factors had opposite effects on physical HRQOL. This finding indicated poor mental HRQOL among caregivers of CWD in Shanghai and thus requiring urgent attention and intervention. Improving physical fitness, maintaining family integration, and providing financial support should be considered when developing intervention for this population.

Highlights

A caregiver is defined as a person who provides care to those who have difficulties in completing the tasks of daily living and need supervision or assistance due to some form of illness or disability [1]
With the rapid growth of the global economy, institutionalized long-term care may be an option for children with disabilities (CWD), but the informal caregivers are preferable because of children’s high dependency and cognitive deficiency
We examined the severity of multicollinearity in the multiple linear regression models using Variance Inflation Factor (VIF)

Summary

Introduction

A caregiver is defined as a person who provides care to those who have difficulties in completing the tasks of daily living and need supervision or assistance due to some form of illness or disability [1]. They may provide the care in an institution or an organization, which is called formal caregiving. The concept refers to an informal caregiver who has a social relationship with the care recipient including family member, relative, friend, or neighbor. The caregivers of CWD generally refer to informal caregivers especially family caregivers including parents, grandparents, siblings, or other family members. There has been a tremendous change in the health care system which exerts a shift toward family-centered services

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