Factors related to the quality of life in family carers of people with dementia: a meta- analysis

Objectives :This meta-analysis aimed to1) quantitatively synthesise evidence offactors related to the Quality of Life (QoL) of family carers of people with dementia (PwD); and2) exploremoderatingfactors that may influence the strength of the relationshipbetween such potential predictive factors and carer QoL. Methods : Studies that investigated correlationsbetween patient/carer-factorsand QoL in unpaid family carers of PwD and were published in English, Spanish, Portuguese or Japanesewere included. Results :Thirty-three studieswere identified. The pooled correlations with carer QoL (effect size) were significantly large for depression(-0.58), significantly moderate for subjective burden (-0.47)and significantly small for PwD’s neuropsychiatric symptoms (-0.24). These results indicated to be robust in the context of publication bias. The results of subgroup analyses demonstrated the social and economic development status of the country where study participants resided did not moderate these effects. Conclusion :Carer depression, subjective burdenand people with dementia’sneuropsychiatric symptomsmay play a critical role in maintaining QoL of family carersregardless of thesocial and economic circumstances