Aim and background: Caregivers of dialysis patients often face substantial physical, psychological, and social challenges impacting their quality of life. This study aimed to evaluate caregivers' quality of life across multiple domains using the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) assessment tool.
Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted at the Dialysis Center of Services Hospital Lahore from March to August 2024. A total of 164 caregivers of adult patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis were enrolled using consecutive sampling after obtaining written informed consent. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using a structured Urdu-language questionnaire incorporating the WHOQOL-BREF tool. Caregivers aged ≥18 years, providing unpaid care for ≥3 months, were included. WHOQOL-BREF assessed four quality-of-life domains. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 26 (Released 2019; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York), with p ≤ 0.05 considered statistically significant.
Results: Out of 164 caregivers enrolled, 88 (53.7%) were male and 76 (46.3%) female, with the majority being married and having at least intermediate education. Most caregivers were sons, wives, or daughters of the dialysis patients. The mean scores across WHOQOL-BREF domains were physical health 50.01 ± 13.70, psychological health 54.10 ± 14.50, social relationships 60.83 ± 22.08, and environmental domain 51.57 ± 16.91. No statistically significant associations were observed between physical, psychological, or environmental domain scores and gender, marital status, education level, age group, or caregiver-patient relationship (p > 0.05). However, the social relationships domain showed a statistically significant difference across age groups (p = 0.017), with higher scores in older caregivers. All other domain comparisons remained statistically non-significant (p > 0.05). Overall, caregiver quality of life was highest in the social domain and lowest in the physical domain.
Conclusion: Caregivers of dialysis patients reported moderate overall quality of life, with the highest scores in social relationships and the lowest in physical health. While caregiver age significantly influenced social domain scores, other sociodemographic factors (gender, marital status, education, and relationship) did not show significant associations. These findings highlight the need for targeted interventions addressing physical health and age-specific social support.
Keywords: caregivers; dialysis; end-stage renal disease (esrd); hemodialysis related; maintenance hemodialysis; quality of life of caregiver.
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