Factors contributing to spousal and offspring caregiver burden in Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease with a chronic disease course. The increase in life expectancy of humans worldwide is expected to increase the prevalence and duration of PD; therefore, it is important to determine factors that contribute to the caregiver burden for both clinical and social reasons.

We surveyed 91 main caregivers of patients, and compared factors contributing to caregiver burden between 50 spouses and 41 offspring of patients. We determined Burden Interview, Depression Scale, Health-Related Quality of Life, and Obligation Scale scores, as well as the degree of functional social support of caregivers.

Interestingly, the burden scores of the two groups were not significantly different. Correlation analysis revealed that depression, health-related quality of life, social support, subdivided parts of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), Hoehn and Yahr Scale, score of Mini-Mental State Examination, and Barthel index were correlated with burden in both spouses and offspring. However, in multiple regression, depression score and part 1 of the UPDRS were more significant predictors of burden in the spousal group, whereas social support of community and part 3 of the UPDRS were more important correlated factors in the offspring group.

The caregiver burden of spousal and offspring caregivers of PD patients was not significantly different. However, different factors contributed to caregiver burden according to the caregiver's relationship with the patient.