ArticleQuality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation2023
Living well while providing support: validation of LTCQ-Carer for assessing informal carers' quality of life.
Article in Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Scales to measure core outcomes for the quality of dementia care in home or residential aged care facilities: a rapid review.BMJ open · 2025Review
- Assessing quality of life-a scoping review of studies presenting quality of life instruments for informal caregivers of persons with dementia.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- What Are the Important Health and Well-Being Outcome Dimensions for Parent Carers of Disabled Children? A Qualitative Study.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2025Article
- What aspects of health and wellbeing are most important to parent carers of children with disabilities?Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeDespite international policies to support the health and wellbeing of informal (family) caregivers, there is no consensus on how to evaluate the effectiveness of carer support. We aimed to develop and validate a new quality-of-life measure for carers (LTCQ-Carer) and to assess its potential for use within a clinical pathway.
methodsPsychometric properties of LTCQ-Carer were tested through cognitive interviews (qualitative phase) and a pilot survey (quantitative phase). Participants were family caregivers of people recently diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia, recruited through one of 14 memory clinics in south-east England. They self-completed the new measure and comparative existing measures (EQ-5D, ASCOT-Carer). Ongoing feedback from memory clinic staff on potential use of LTCQ-Carer was collected.
resultsInterview participants (n = 10) found all draft items of LTCQ-Carer relevant and prompted inclusion of a new item on 'time to yourself'. Responses from survey participants (n = 107) indicated acceptability (low missing data), high internal reliability (Cronbach's α = 0.95), and a general construct (single factor loadings 0.43-0.86 for all items). Observation of predicted associations with EQ-5D and ASCOT-Carer supported construct validity. Responsiveness requires further testing as evidence was inconclusive. Clinical staff feedback on potential use was positive.
conclusionLTCQ-Carer is a valid new measure for assessing family caregivers' quality of life across broad health and social care domains, expanding the range of high-quality tools for evaluating carer support. When used concurrently with patient assessment, it could highlight carer needs and prompt appropriate family support at the earliest point in the clinical pathway.
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