Hu Ying, Guo Xiajun, You Hui, Liu Li, Wang Yao
Xiangya Nursing School, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China.
BMC Nurs. 2025 Jan 10;24(1):37. doi: 10.1186/s12912-024-02671-9.
China has the largest percentage of people with dementia (PwD) around the world. And most of them are cared for by their family members. The purpose of this study was to identify the quality of life (QoL) of family caregivers of PwD in rural China and to investigate the mediating role of social support between caregiver burden and QoL under the guidance of a stress process model.
This cross-sectional design study in rural areas of Hunan province, China included 150 family caregivers of PwD. The participants completed questionnaires, including the demographic information questionnaire on caregivers and PwD, the caregiver version of QoL in Alzheimer's Disease, the Caregiver Burden Inventory, and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. The demographic factors associated with QoL were subjected to univariate analysis. Pearson's correlations were used to test the relationship among care burden, social support, and QoL. SPSS PROCESS Procedure was conducted to test the hypothesis of mediating effects.
The family caregivers of PwD exhibited a fair QoL, with a score of 29.01 ± 4.059. Pearson's correlations revealed the negative correlation of caregiver burden with social support and QoL and the positive correlation between social support and the QoL of family caregivers. The results suggest the mediating role of social support between caregiver burden and the QoL.
The QoL of family caregivers of PwD in rural China is suboptimal and indirectly influenced by the caregiving burden through the mediating effect of social support. Strengthening social support networks, both formal and informal, is essential to reducing caregiver burden and improving the QoL of family caregivers of PwD.
中国是全球痴呆症患者比例最高的国家。其中大多数患者由其家庭成员照料。本研究旨在确定中国农村地区痴呆症患者家庭照料者的生活质量，并在应激过程模型的指导下，探讨社会支持在照料者负担与生活质量之间的中介作用。
本横断面设计研究在中国湖南省农村地区开展，纳入了150名痴呆症患者的家庭照料者。参与者完成了问卷调查，包括照料者和痴呆症患者的人口统计学信息问卷、阿尔茨海默病生活质量照料者版问卷、照料者负担量表和领悟社会支持多维量表。对与生活质量相关的人口统计学因素进行单因素分析。采用Pearson相关性分析来检验照料负担、社会支持和生活质量之间的关系。运用SPSS PROCESS程序来检验中介效应假设。
痴呆症患者的家庭照料者生活质量处于中等水平，得分为29.01±4.059。Pearson相关性分析显示，照料者负担与社会支持和生活质量呈负相关，社会支持与家庭照料者的生活质量呈正相关。结果表明社会支持在照料者负担和生活质量之间起中介作用。
中国农村地区痴呆症患者家庭照料者的生活质量欠佳，照料负担通过社会支持的中介作用间接影响生活质量。加强正式和非正式的社会支持网络对于减轻照料者负担和提高痴呆症患者家庭照料者的生活质量至关重要。
