Quality of life*

Background: Informal care giving can be burdensome particularly where the option of institutionalized informal care scarcely exist.; Objective: To look at the burden of informal caregivers of stroke survivors using the Zarit burden interview (ZBI).; Method: 64 stroke survivors were assessed for demographics of age, gender, duration of follow-up since discharged from in-patient care, modified Rankin score at the time of discharge and at the time of evaluation for this study and the most important informal care giver at home was also assessed

Aims and Objectives: To examine whether chronic heart failure patient-carer dyads who disagree about the division of illness management tasks (incongruent) experience poorer psychosocial health and self-care, than those who agree (congruent).; Background: Informal carers often assist patients with chronic heart failure in the complex management of their illness, but little is known about how relationship dynamics may affect psychosocial health.; Design: A prospective cross-sectional study was adopted with a purposeful sample of 25 chronic h

Aim: To investigate the effects of the practice of yoga in combination with compassion meditation on the quality of life, attention, vitality and self-compassion of family caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease.; Methods: A total of 46 volunteers were randomly allocated to two groups, the yoga and compassion meditation program group (n = 25), and the control group (CG) that received no treatment (n = 21). The program lasted 8 weeks, and comprised three yoga and meditation practices per week, with each session lasting 1 h and 15 min.

Background: The role of caregivers is important for the successful support of left ventricular assist device (LVAD) patients. We aimed to (1) evaluate quality of life (QoL) of caregivers pre-and post-LVAD implant and (2) identify factors associated with caregivers' QoL.; Methods: The caregivers' QoL was assessed with the Short Form-8 before implant, at 3 and 6 months after LVAD implantation. The physical and mental component summary (PCS and MCS) scores were calculated.

Non-motor symptoms (NMS) of Parkinson's disease (PD) are a key determinant of health, quality of life (QoL) and societal cost of PD. They are often less appreciated than motor symptoms but are important sources of disability for manyPDpatients. Literature search was performed using the reference databases Medline, Science Citation Index and EMBASE. The keywords used were 'non-motor symptoms', Parkinson's disease, olfaction and constipation. Papers discovered by this search were reviewed, as were references cited therein.

This article aims to provide a brief review of the literature with regard to the impact of lung cancer on patients and their informal carers. Compared to other types of cancer, the distress associated with lung cancer has been found to be the most intense. Rather than focusing on symptoms in isolation recent emphasis regarding the symptom experience has been on symptoms clusters, as understanding these clusters may improve the management of ongoing and unrelieved symptoms.