Objective: To determine the burden of caregivers in caring for persons with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and establish the relationship between the burden of care and the caregiver’s quality of life (QoL).

Background: PD limits patients’ ability to function independently, hence require the help of caregivers [1]. The disease does not affect only the patients, but also has an impact on the caregivers and places a huge burden which directly affects their QoL. Therefore, it is essential to identify the burden of caregiving and find ways of maximizing the QoL of the caregiver as this directly affects their care for the patients [2].

Method: A cross sectional survey was conducted and participants were purposefully sampled into this study. The Modified Caregiver Strain Index (MCSI) questionnaire and the PD Carer Questionnaire (PDQ – Carer) were used to assess the burden and QoL respectively. The study population included all primary caregivers of persons diagnosed with PD who visited the Physiotherapy and Neurology units of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. The data collected was keyed into Microsoft Excel 2016, and analyzed using Jamovi (version 1.8.4). The results were summarized with tables and figures. The ordinal logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship between participants’ burden of care and their QoL. The level of significance was set at α ≤ 0.05.

Results: A total of 21 caregivers with 17 females (table 1) were recruited. The ages ranged from 24 to 71 years with 42.9% of the caregivers being spouses. The overall mean MCSI score was 14.1 (±5.76) and ranged from 4 to 24. Twelve (57.1%) participants recorded moderate level of stress, three (14.3%) were highly stressed and six (28.6%) were not stressed. The top three causes of burden were the inconvenience that came with caregiving, upsetting behaviors of patients and work adjustments. The mean score obtained on the PDQ-Carer was 40.7 (± 16.3) and ranged from 10.4 to 68.9. Majority of the participants (n=19/21, 90.5%) had a normal QoL while two (9.5%) had severely compromised quality of life. There was a significant relationship (Z=2.366, p=0.018) between the overall QoL and burden of care.

Conclusion: Some caregivers of persons with PD in Ghana are moderately burdened with a few demonstrating severely compromised QoL. Also, the overall QoL of the caregivers is significantly influenced by the burden of caregiving.

References: 1. Bhimani, R. (2014). Understanding the burden on caregivers of people with Parkinson’s: A scoping review of the literature. Rehabilitation Research and Practice, 2014, 1-4.
2. Martinez-Martin, P., Rodriguez-Blazquez, C., & Forjaz, M. J. (2012). Quality of life and burden in caregivers for patients with Parkinson’s disease: Concepts, assessment and related factors. Expert Rev. Pharmacoecon. Outcomes Res, 12(2), 221-230.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/caregivers-burden-in-caring-for-persons-with-parkinsons-disease-a-survey-from-a-teaching-hospital-in-ghana/