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. 2022 Jun 29;19(13):7962.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19137962.

Effect of Perceived Stress on Health-Related Quality of Life among Primary Caregiving Spouses of Patients with Severe Dementia: The Mediating Role of Depression and Sleep Quality

Jinheum Kim  1 , Eunjeong Cha  2
Affiliations

Effect of Perceived Stress on Health-Related Quality of Life among Primary Caregiving Spouses of Patients with Severe Dementia: The Mediating Role of Depression and Sleep Quality

Jinheum Kim et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Recently, there has been a rise in the number of spouses becoming primary caregivers to patients with dementia. This study identifies the mediating effects of depression and sleep quality on the relationship between perceived stress and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among primary caregiving spouses of patients with severe dementia through a secondary data analysis of the 2018 Korea Community Health Survey by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Data from 229 primary caregiving spouses of patients with severe dementia were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Spearman's rank correlation or Pearson's correlation analysis, and the lavaan R package, version 0.6-9. The association between perceived stress status (PSS) and the European Quality of Life Five Dimension (EQ-5D) index was highly significant. The direct effect of PSS observed in the model was nullified with both the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index as mediators, which implies that they mediate the effect of PSS on caregivers' EQ-5D indexes. The mediation model accounted for 33.2% of the variance in the EQ-5D index of caregivers. The results suggest the need to develop an intervention to improve sleep quality and manage depression to mitigate a decline in HRQoL for these caregivers.

Keywords: dementia; depression; health-related quality of life; perceived stress; primary caregiver; sleep quality; spouse.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Hypothetical mediation models.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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