S0023 [Source: Li et al. (2007). Nursing and Health Sciences 9:192-198.]
A study was conducted to find out the best predictors of family caregivers' burden and their quality of life when providing care for a family member with schizophrenia. Potential factors considered included the demographic characteristics of the family members with schizophrenia and of the family caregivers. Family caregivers' burden was assessed by the 14-item Chinese version of the Caregiver Burden scale. A high score indicates more severe burden. Quality of life of family caregivers was measured by the Chinese WHOQOL-BREF. The higher is the score, the better is the quality of life. Stepwise regression was used to identify predictors of family caregivers' burden and of family caregivers' quality of life. Main results are provided in the following table.
Questions:
Q1. How was physical health of caregivers associated with family caregivers' quality of life?
Q2. Are you satisfied with the way the results are presented in the table? If not, how could it be improved?
Q3. There was no justification of the adequacy of the method used. What would you suggest the authors to perform?
Q4. Age and gender were also considered but they were not shown in the table. What could be the reasons?
Q5. How would you validate if the identified predictors could reliably be used for prediction?
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