| Title |
The impact of patients' chronic disease on family quality of life: an experience from 26 specialties
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
International Journal of General Medicine, September 2013
|
| DOI | 10.2147/ijgm.s45156 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Catherine Jane Golics, Mohammad Khurshid Azam Basra, M Sam Salek, Andrew Yule Finlay |
| Abstract |
Previous studies have assessed family quality of life in individual disease areas and specialties. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of disease on family members of patients over a wide range of specialties and identify key impact areas. This information is essential in order to reveal the extent of this impact and to allow strategies to be developed to support the family members of patients with chronic disease. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 133 family members of mostly chronically ill patients from 26 medical specialties. Family members were invited to discuss all areas of their lives that had been affected by having an unwell relative. Thematic analysis was carried out using NVivo9® software. Most family members were female (61%), the partner or spouse of the patient (56%), or the parent (22%). Their mean age was 56.1 years (range: 21-85 years) and the mean duration of the patient's disease was 8.9 years (range: 1 month to 60 years). Ten key themes of family quality of life were identified from interviews. The median number of themes reported by family members was six (range: 1-10). The key themes included: emotional impact (mentioned by 92% of subjects), daily activities (91%), family relationships (69%), sleep and health (67%), holidays (62%), involvement in medical care and support given to family members (61%), work and study (52%), financial impact (51%), social life (37%), and time planning (14%). Relationships between the themes were identified. This large scale multi-specialty study has demonstrated the significant, yet similar, impact that illness can have on the quality of life of patients' family members. Family quality of life is a previously neglected area of health care which needs to be addressed in order to provide appropriate support for the patient and the family unit. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 12 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Spain | 5 | 42% |
| Canada | 1 | 8% |
| Andorra | 1 | 8% |
| Belgium | 1 | 8% |
| Unknown | 4 | 33% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 11 | 92% |
| Scientists | 1 | 8% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 313 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 1 | <1% |
| Italy | 1 | <1% |
| Belgium | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 310 | 99% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Bachelor | 69 | 22% |
| Student > Master | 47 | 15% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 24 | 8% |
| Student > Postgraduate | 19 | 6% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 17 | 5% |
| Other | 53 | 17% |
| Unknown | 84 | 27% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 86 | 27% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 52 | 17% |
| Psychology | 27 | 9% |
| Social Sciences | 13 | 4% |
| Computer Science | 10 | 3% |
| Other | 36 | 12% |
| Unknown | 89 | 28% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 9. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 29 July 2016.
All research outputs
#4,264,231
of 25,576,275 outputs
Outputs from International Journal of General Medicine
#204
of 1,658 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#35,129
of 212,894 outputs
Outputs of similar age from International Journal of General Medicine
#4
of 15 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,576,275 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 83rd percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,658 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 11.3. This one has done well, scoring higher than 87% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 15 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 80% of its contemporaries.