Abstract
Parkinson's disease imposes significant demands not only on patients but also on those people living and caring for them, who often have a reduction in their quality of life. The factors that may ameliorate these effects, such as an individual's personality, are not understood. Therefore, the aim of this study was to look at the relative contribution of caregiver personality on their quality of life, specifically attempting to identify those traits, which may be protective or harmful. Two hundred and seventy-four caregivers of patients with Parkinson's disease were included in this study. Caregivers were given questionnaires to complete, including the Big Five Inventory and the World Health Organisation Quality of Life BREF version. Univariate correlations demonstrated that depression and anxiety were the largest predictors of reduced quality of life amongst caregivers. However, after controlling for these potential confounds, conscientiousness was associated with enhanced psychological quality of life and openness positively predicted benefits in the environmental domain. Neuroticism was associated with reduced quality of life in the psychological domain. Thus, screening for neuroticism may help identify those caregivers who would benefit from intervention strategies, which could in the long term help reduce the need for nursing home placement of Parkinson's disease patients.
Highlights
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the world’s second most common neurodegenerative disease affecting 1%-2% of the population over 65 years of age [1]
For the caregiver’s environmental quality of life (QoL), even after controlling for disease stage (b = 0.02, ns), duration of caregiving (b = −0.02, ns), hours spent assisting with ADLs (b = 0.20, P < 0.001), depression (b = −0.40, P < 0.001), and anxiety (t = −0.19, P < 0.001), the personality trait of openness remained a significant predictor (b = 0.13, P < 0.01), though neuroticism did not. These variables explained 44.5% of variance in environmental QoL. This is the first study to examine the relative contributions of personality to QoL in caregivers of PD patients
These analyses showed that personality variables did not predict QoL in social or physical domains, once all other confounds were considered
Summary
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the world’s second most common neurodegenerative disease affecting 1%-2% of the population over 65 years of age [1]. It is a progressive condition with both motor and nonmotor symptoms that can have a profound impact on the patients and on family members who often adopt the role of a caregiver [1]. Preceding data has shown a relationship between advancing stages of PD and a caregiver’s QoL, including an increase in strain and a negative lifestyle change as PD progresses [4] Caregiver spouses are less likely to spend time outside of the house or take a holiday than non-caregiver spouses [5], and older spousal caregivers often have to face age-related challenges themselves.
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