Carer quality of life and experiences of health services: a cross-sectional survey across three neurological conditions

Table 6 Factors associated with carer quality of life and strain

	SF-12			CSI
Problem score		SF-12 PCS	SF-12 MCS	CSI
	n	Mean (SE)	Mean (SE)	n	Mean (SE)
0	99	51.1 (1.09)	48.3 (1.05)	98	11.3 (0.52)
1	333	48.6 (0.65)	48.0 (0.63)	327	10.1 (0.31)
2-3	391	48.2 (0.57)	46.2 (0.55)	378	12.0 (0.28)
4-5	243	46.9 (0.71)	42.2 (0.55)	237	13.9 (0.24)
6+	240	44.6 (0.72)	39.0 (0.69)	226	16.0 (0.35)
p		<0.001	<0.001		<0.001
LTNC	n	Mean (SE)	Mean (SE)	n	Mean (SE)
MND	297	48.3 (0.67)	44.1 (0.65)	301	14.1 (0.32)
MS	527	47.4 (0.64)	46.3 (0.62)	521	11.3 (0.31)
PD	482	47.9 (0.59)	43.8 (0.58)	444	12.4 (0.29)
p		0.634	0.003		<0.001
Age (years)	n	Mean (SE)	Mean (SE)	n	Mean (SE)
<55	357	51.9 (0.64)	42.8 (0.62)	365	13.3 (0.30)
55-63	364	50.2 (0.61)	42.9 (0.59)	348	13.7 (0.30)
64-71	315	46.7 (0.65)	45.9 (0.63)	299	12.4 (0.32)
72+	270	42.8 (0.71)	47.2 (0.69)	254	11.1 (0.35)
p		<0.001	<0.001		<0.001
Gender	n	Mean (SE)	Mean (SE)	n	Mean (SE)
Male	575	48.2 (0.53)	45.6 (0.51)	560	12.2 (0.26)
Female	731	47.6 (0.46)	43.9 (0.45)	706	13.0 (0.22)
p		0.357	0.006		0.010
Time since becoming a carer (years)	n	Mean (SE)	Mean (SE)	n	Mean (SE)
<1	92	48.6 (1.16)	45.7 (1.13)	95	11.5 (0.55)
1-2	236	48.6 (0.74)	44.2 (0.72)	230	12.5 (0.36)
3-4	205	47.3 (0.78)	44.5 (0.75)	202	12.6 (0.37)
5-10	375	48.3 (0.59)	44.8 (0.57)	361	13.0 (0.29)
>10	398	46.6 (0.63)	44.5 (0.61)	378	13.6 (0.31)
p		0.151	0.829		0.015
Length of time spent caring/week (hours)	n	Mean (SE)	Mean (SE)	n	Mean (SE)
1-19	451	49.3 (0.58)	47.0 (0.56)	442	8.90 (0.28)
20-34	221	47.2 (0.75)	45.1 (0.72)	224	11.8 (0.35)
35-70	293	48.2 (0.67)	43.1 (0.65)	287	14.2 (0.33)
>70	341	46.9 (0.64)	43.7 (0.62)	313	15.7 (0.32)
p		0.026	<0.001		<0.001
Adjusted R squared		0.13	0.17		0.42

ISSN: 1477-7525