Patient and Family Caregiver's Neuroticism and Conscientiousness Personality in Relation to Quality of Life of Patient With Parkinson's Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study Neuroticism and Conscientiousness Personality in Relation to QoL of Patient With PD

Abstract

Background: Personality impacts life expectancy and comprehensive treatment efficacy for patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, current research fails to involve the family caregiver's personality despite significant external support provided by family caregivers. This study explored neuroticism and conscientiousness personality factors of the patient and family caregiver associated with quality of life (QoL) of PD patients.Methods: 134 couples of patients presenting with PD and their family caregivers that met inclusion criteria, were recruited for this cross-sectional study at Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital from October 2015 to 2017. The Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire-39 Items (PDQ-39) for QoL, including the physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS), the Neuroticism Extraversion Openness Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) for neuroticism and conscientiousness personalities, and the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) for PD severity questionnaires were employed. Multivariate stepwise linear regression determined the contributions of demographic, clinical and personality variables in PDQ-39, PCS, and MCS.Results: PD patients and neuroticism were significantly associated with total PDQ-39, PCS, and MCS. Additionally, conscientiousness was significantly associated with PDQ-39 and PCS. After adding neuroticism and caregiver conscientiousness personality, the importance of neuroticism for the QoL model dramatically decreased, and caregiver conscientiousness personality was associated with lower scores in total PDQ-39 and PCS.Conclusion: We revealed a significant association between neuroticism and physical or mental status of PD patients; however, this association decreased when caregiver conscientiousness was added to the model. Moreover, conscientiousness of patients and caregivers were associated with improved QoL.

Prevalence and Associated Factors of Depressive Disorder in Caregivers of Individuals With Parkinson Disease

“…44 Ma et al examined the personality factors of neuroticism and conscientiousness of persons with PD and their caregivers and the association with quality of life of PD patients. 45 Among 134 couples, they found a significant association between neuroticism and the physical or mental status of people with PD. This result partially supports our finding that neuroticism was correlated with depression in caregivers of people with PD.…”

“…This result partially supports our finding that neuroticism was correlated with depression in caregivers of people with PD. 45 Another study found that nonmotor psychological symptoms of persons with PD have a much greater impact on caregiver depression than the motor symptoms of persons with PD. 46 However, a meta-analysis study showed a contradictory finding that motor symptoms of people with PD had the strongest relationship with caregiver distress.…”

Effect of personality traits on the oral health-related quality of life in patients with oral lichen planus undergoing treatment

“…Therefore, the facet "conscientiousness" could influence higher treatment adherence. Furthermore, the caregiver's conscientiousness could have a significant influence on treatment outcome [22]. Self-efficacy mediated the effect of extraversion and conscientiousness on health-related quality of life [23][24][25].…”

Association between Caregiver Neurotic Personality Trait and Elder Abuse: Investigating the Moderating Role of Change in the Level of Caregiver Perceived Burden

“…Such reconceptualization can help to foster more compassion and empathy in the caregivers towards the care recipients, thus reducing the caregivers’ abusive impulses. Second, considering that caregivers with high neuroticism may develop negative affect (i.e., frustration, sadness, anger, and emotional instability) when caregiving-related stress accumulates and intensifies [50], behavioral activation methods can be employed to specifically reduce avoidant coping and promote problem-focused coping to help caregivers to stay resilient and emotionally stable when these stressful triggers occur [56]. Further, recent intervention strategies have shown that improvement in positive reinterpretation, perceived control, and perceived social support and decrease in perceived criticism effectively reduced avoidant coping and bolstered problem-focused coping when encountered stressors [48].…”

“…Our study attempts to address this gap by showing that although no significant association was evident at baseline, a high level of neuroticism at baseline in caregivers was associated with an increased degree of care neglect during the 2-year observation period. Perhaps, caregivers high in neuroti- cism tend to be more reactive to care-related stressors arising from caregiving activities, which might further lead to distraction in care provision [50]. Additional evidence suggested that individuals high in neuroticism were more likely to adopt avoidant coping strategies when encountered stressors [51], potentially increasing the risk of neglectful behaviors in the caregiving process.…”