Types of stroke-related deficits and their impact on family caregiver's depressive symptoms, burden, and quality of life.

Background: Stroke caregiving has been associated with higher rates of caregiver burden, depression, and lower quality of life compared to non-caregivers. Little is known about relationships between stroke survivors' Cognitive/Emotional and Motor/Functional deficits and caregivers' outcomes.

Objective: To determine the relationship between stroke survivors' Cognitive/Emotional deficits and Motor/Functional deficits and caregivers' depression, burden, and quality of life.

Method: This is a retrospective secondary data analysis. The sample consisted of 109 caregivers of stroke survivors. Step-wise linear multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine if Cognitive/Emotional deficits and/or Motor/Functional deficits, were predictive of caregivers' depressive symptoms, burden, physical quality of life, and mental quality of life.

Results: The Cognitive/Emotional deficits category was a better predictor than the Motor/Functional deficit of caregivers' depressive symptoms, burden, and mental quality of life. The Cognitive/Emotional deficit score positively predicted both depression (β = .49, p < .001) and burden (β = 0.39, p < .001) and negatively predicted mental quality of life (β = -0.42, p < .001), though it did not significantly predict physical quality of life (β = -0.01, p = .90). The motor/functional deficits failed to significantly predict any of the caregiver outcomes (all p-values >.05).

Conclusions: The Cognitive/Emotional deficits appear to impact caregiver well-being more than the Motor/Functional deficits. Understanding the impact of Cognitive/Emotional and Motor/Functional deficits on caregivers can help clinicians identify caregivers at the highest risk for negative outcomes.