Factors | Number of studies | Key insights |
Demographic variables |
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Gender | 15 | Patient and caregiver sex has little effect on caregiver burden, although there is a trend that higher burden scores are associated with female caregivers and male patients |
Relationship | 7 | There is conflicting evidence as to whether spouses are more burdened than non-spouses. Spouses and non-spouses tend to differ with respect to the burden domains affected |
Age | 20 | The influence of patient and caregiver age on caregiver burden emerged when comparing various caregiver age groups |
Socio-demographic | 5 | Two studies reported cultural variation in caregiver burden |
Motor symptoms of patients |
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PD stage | 20 | PD stage is an important predictor of caregiver burden |
Parkinsonism | 18 | Many studies report on the relationship between caregiver burden and the motor severity of PD. Motor severity (apart from disability) is not reported to independently contribute to caregiver burden. Patient functional ability as assessed by several ADL scales correlates with caregiver burden. Evidence of the individual effect of functional impairment on caregiver burden is inconclusive |
Falls and motor complications | 8 | Studies reporting on the relationship between caregiver burden and patient motor fluctuations, involuntary movements and falls confirm the association |
Duration of PD | 11 | Most studies analysing the relationship between duration of PD and burden report a positive correlation |
Non-motor symptoms |
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Depression | 13 | Depressive symptoms in patients are important contributors to caregiver burden |
Anxiety and apathy | 5 | The relationship between patient anxiety, apathy and caregiver burden is confirmed in a few studies |
Cognition | 9 | Patients’ mild as well as serious cognitive impairment identified on several generic scales was related to caregiver burden |
Psychotic symptoms and behavioural disturbances | 10 | A few studies report on the association between patient psychiatric symptoms and caregiver burden. Patient behavioural problems as assessed by a variety of scales have been found to have a significant effect on caregiver burden |
Neuropsychiatric comorbidity | 6 | In general, neuropsychiatric symptoms have a stronger impact on caregiver burden than motorsymptoms. Caregivers of patients diagnosed with comorbidities such as depression, apathy, dementia, psychosis and impulse control disorders reported more burden than caregivers of patients without such comorbidities |
Other non-motor symptoms | 6 | With the exception of neuropsychiatrics, non-motor symptoms are sparsely addressed. Sleep disturbance is reported as an independent contributor to caregiver burden |
Patient’s Quality of life | 9 | Several studies demonstrate the association between higher burden scores and decrease in patient quality of life (QoL) as assessed by both PD specific and generic QoL instruments |