The Influence of Socio-Demographic Characteristics on Caregivers' Burden and Quality Of Life of Elderly Diabetics Attending a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital.

Background: Caregivers' burden and health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) associated with Diabetes Mellitus (DM) are affected by several factors, including socio-demographic characteristics of the patients and their caregivers. Unfortunately, studies evaluating the influence of socio-demographic characteristics on caregivers and patients with DM in this environment are limited. This study therefore aimed at assessing the level of the burden imposed on the primary caregivers, the level of HRQoL of Individuals with Diabetes Mellitus (IDM) and the influence of socio-demographic characteristics on these variables among IDM attending the Family Medicine clinic of Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesa, Osun State, Nigeria. Methodology: Seventy-eight consenting IDM and their corresponding primary caregivers were recruited over 13-weeks in this hospital-based cross-sectional descriptive study. The Well-Being Questionnaire and Zarit Burden Interview were administered on IDM and their corresponding caregivers to assess HRQoL and burden of care. Data were analysed on SPSS 17 using descriptive statistics and Pearson chi-square test at p<0.05. Results: Mean ages of respondents were 70.4±6.33 and 23.7±7.58 years for diabetics and caregivers, respectively. The majority of the diabetic respondents were females (61.5%), married (66.7%), and retired (64.1%). The majority of the caregivers were females (87.2%), petty traders/students (71.8%) and unmarried (87.2%). Over half (51.3%) of the diabetic respondents and their caregivers had 'good' HRQoL and 'high' caregivers' burden. Conclusion: The caregiver being a female, having primary education, being single and having a nuclear family relation of the IDM influenced good HRQoL, whereas being a low-income earner and an uneducated IDM influenced high caregivers' burden.

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Igbo language version of the stroke-specific quality of life scale 2.0.

INTRODUCTION: availability of the Stroke-Specific Quality of Life scale 2.0 (SS-QoL(E)) in Yoruba and Hausa, two of the three major indigenous languages in Nigeria have the potential to promote its uptake among these population, however, its non-availability in the Igbo languages makes its use restrictive among the south-eastern Nigerians. This study was aimed at cross-culturally adapting and assessing validity and reliability of the Igbo version of the SS-QoL. METHODS: the SS-QoL(E) was cross-culturally adapted to Igbo following the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons' guideline. This involved forward and back-translations, expert committee review, pretesting and cognitive debriefing interview to produce the final Igbo version, SS-QoL(I). The validity and reliability test involved 50 consenting Igbo stroke survivors. The construct validity was assessed by administering SS-QoL(E) and SS-QoL(I) on all 50 respondents, while SS-QoL(I) was re-administered at 7-day interval to assess test-retest reliability. Each scale was administered in random order. Data were analysed using Spearman's correlation, Wilcoxon's signed-rank test, Cronbach's alpha, Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC), independent t-test and one-way ANOVA at p<0.05. RESULTS: respondents' domains scores on SS-QoL(E) and SS-QoL(I) did not differ significantly except in mobility and work (r=0.58 to 0.87; p=0.001). Cronbach's alpha was 0.69 to 0.87 for domains scores. The ICC ranged from 0.48 to 0.84, while no significant differences was found across different age groups or gender for the domains or overall scores of SS-QoL(I). CONCLUSION: the Igbo version of the SS-QoL has limited alterations from the original version and has moderate to excellent validity and reliability values.

Validity and reliability of a Nigerian-Yoruba version of the stroke-specific quality of life scale 2.0.

BACKGROUND: Psychometric evidence is necessary to establish scientific integrity and clinical usefulness of translations and cultural adaptations of the Stroke-Specific Quality of Life (SS-QoL) scale. However, the limited evidence on psychometrics of Yoruba version of SS-QoL 2.0 (SS-QoL(Y)) is a significant shortcoming. This study assessed the test-retest reliability, internal consistency, convergent, divergent, discriminant and known-group validity of the SS-QoL(Y). METHODS: Yoruba version of the WHOQoL-BREF was used to test the convergent and divergent validity of the SS-QoL(Y) among 100 consenting stroke survivors. The WHOQoL-BREF and SS-QoL(Y) was administered randomly in order to eliminate bias. The test-retest reliability of the SS-QoL(Y) was carried out among 68 of the respondents within an interval of 7 days. All respondents were purposively recruited from selected secondary and tertiary health facilities in South-west Nigeria. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation, and inferential statistics of Spearman correlation, Cronbach's alpha, Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC), Independent t-test and One-way ANOVA. Alpha level was set at p < 0.05. RESULT: The physical health, psychological health, social relationship and environment domains on WHOQoL-BREF with correlation coefficient that ranged from 0.214 to 0.360 showed significant correlation with similar domains on SS-QoL(Y). Dissimilar domains between the two scales had r values from 0.035 to 0.366. Discriminant validity of SS-QoL(Y) showed that items' r value ranged from 0.711 to 0.920 with their hypothesized domains. The scale demonstrated moderate to strong test-retest reliability with Intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) for the domains and overall scores (r = 0.47 to 0.81) and moderate to high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha =0.61 to 0.82) for domains scores. These correlations were also significant for the domains and overall scores (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences across different age groups or gender for the domains or overall scores of SS-QoL(Y). CONCLUSIONS: Discriminant and known-group validity, test-retest reliability and internal consistency of the Yoruba version of the Stroke Specific Quality of Life 2.0 are adequate while the convergent and divergent validity are low but acceptable. The SS-QoL(Y) is recommended for assessing health-related quality of life among Yoruba stroke survivors.