Partner Burden: A Common Entity in Celiac Disease

Abstract

Partner burden is common in CD, with more than one-third of partners experiencing mild-to-moderate burden. Partner burden is directly correlated with patient symptom severity, and it increases with poorer sexual and relationship satisfaction. Healthcare providers should address relationship factors in their care of patients with CD.

Caring for a Celiac Partner: Gluten, but not Worry Free

“…Sexual satisfaction was reported to be low in *15 % of the partners studied. Interestingly, they reported that mild-moderate partner burden in their cohort was significantly associated with a low level of relationship satisfaction and disease duration of C10 years [8].…”

“…Roy et al [8] also reported that partner burden in celiac disease was significantly associated with reduced relationship satisfaction between the patient and the partner. Similar inverse correlation between ZBI score and relationship quality was also reported in IBS patients as well as in certain non-gastrointestinal diseases such as dementia & Prashant Singh prashant2303@gmail.com [4,9].…”

“…In this issue of Digestive Diseases and Sciences, Roy et al [8] have explored partner burden in celiac disease, identifying associated factors. Among 94 patient-partner pairs studied at a tertiary care center, over one-third of partners suffered from mild-moderate degrees of partner burden [8].…”

“…Among 94 patient-partner pairs studied at a tertiary care center, over one-third of partners suffered from mild-moderate degrees of partner burden [8]. Additionally, about one-fourth of the partners reported moderate-low overall satisfaction with their relationship [8].…”

“…Partners of patients with celiac disease were assessed for caregiver burden using the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI), a tool most commonly used to study the caregiver burden in other chronic diseases [8]. The mean caregiver burden score in this study (17.5 ± 12.8) was comparable to the mean caregiver burden scores reported among other chronic diseases including IBS, dementia, and advanced cancer [8]. Nevertheless, since the nature of the burden and the factors underlying it could be considerably different in every disease, numerical comparison might not be appropriate.…”