Variables Impacting the Quality of Life of Dementia Caregivers: A Data Visualization Analysis

Purpose: Visually explore the rates of and relationships between overall physical and mental health, sleep disturbances, and depression rates in a single sample of caregivers of persons with dementia, caregivers of persons with other chronic illness, and non-caregiving adults. Design: Exploratory descriptive study utilizing data visualization methods. Methods: Data were analyzed from the 2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System dataset. Multiple graphs and charts were developed to visualize data between groups. Descriptive statistics analyzed the rates of variables of interest across the three groups. One-way analysis of variance assessed relationships between variables. Results: Caregivers of persons with dementia and of other chronic illnesses reported poorer health outcomes as compared to non-caregiving adults. However, caregivers of persons with other chronic illnesses reported the worst outcomes of all groups. Depression and sleep disturbances were prevalent in all three groups. Conclusions: The quality of life of caregivers of persons with dementia and chronic illness is impacted by poorer health outcomes, specifically mental health and sleep. Clinical Relevance: Findings support the need for caregiver-specific interventions that target overall physical and mental health, depression, and sleep disturbances. However, we also found support for mental health and sleep interventions for all individuals.