THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTIONAL STATE AND QUALITY OF LIFE OF FAMILY CAREGIVERS OF STROKE PATIENTS AND PATIENT FACTORS

Abstract

Introduction: We aimed to evaluate the emotional state and quality of life of family caregivers of stroke patients and to investigate the relationship between patient factors and these characteristics of caregivers.MaterialsandMethod:Ninety-sevenpatientswithhemiplegiaafteracerebrovascular event and their caregivers were included in this cross-sectional study. The emotional state of the caregivers was evaluated with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Their quality of life was evaluated with Short Form-36. Functional Independence Measurement (FIM) and modified-Rankin Score (MRS) were used for functional status of the patients, HADS was used for their emotional state and Stroke-Specific Quality of Life Scale (SS-QOL) was used for their quality of life.Results: Mean HADS-Anxiety score was 9.0 ± 3.7 and mean HADS-Depression score was 8.3 ± 3.7 in caregivers. Mean HADS-Anxiety score was 10.1 ± 3.4 and mean HADS-D score was 8.7 ± 3.6 in patients. The rates of anxiety disorder and depression in caregivers were 39.2% and 55.7%, respectively. The rates of anxiety disorder and depression in stroke patients were 40.2% and 50.5%, respectively. A positive correlation was found between HADS scores of caregivers and patients (p < 0.05). There was a significant negative correlation between the HADS scores of caregivers and SS-QOL scores of patients (p < 0.05). There was a statistically significant relationship between the quality of life of caregivers and the MRS, motor FIM and FIM-total scores of patients (p < 0.05).