Patients with Parkinson’s disease who have caregivers at higher risk of depression are more likely to experience worse health outcomes and poorer quality of life than those who have caregivers at lower depression risk, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open.
The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, analyzed a sample of 454 patient-caregiver dyads who were recruited from 15 Parkinson’s Foundation Centers of Excellence within the U.S. during routine clinical visits.
Patients received questionnaires to measure their health-related quality of life, as well as the number of annual emergency department visits and hospitalization visits. Caregivers were also tested to measure whether they had any depressive symptoms, using the Center for Epidemiologic Depression Scale.
Greater depression symptoms among caregivers were associated with worse patient quality of life as measured by the Parkinson Disease Questionnaire and more annual ED visits, but not more hospitalizations, the researchers found.
“In this cohort study, patients with PD who had caregivers at higher risk of depression were more likely to have worse QOL and higher ED use than patients who had caregivers not at higher risk of depression,” the study’s authors wrote.
The researchers found that providing additional caregiver resources and interventions to reduce caregiver depression symptoms could potentially improve patient outcomes.
“These findings suggest that provision of additional resources and interventions to reduce caregiver depression symptoms is important to potentially improve outcomes among patients with Parkinson disease,” the authors concluded.
