Social Support Associated with Quality of Life in Home Care Patients with Intractable Neurological Disease in Japan

Table 1

Characteristics of patients with intractable neurological diseases (N = 74).

Age	63.9 ± 12.0
Sex
Male	38 (51.4)
Female	36 (48.6)
Disease name
Parkinson's disease	42 (56.8)
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis	3 (4.1)
Spinocerebellar	10 (13.5)
Multiple sclerosis	7 (9.5)
Multiple system atrophy	4 (5.4)
Myasthenia gravis	3 (4.1)
Other	5 (6.8)
Age at disease onset	55.9 ± 13.6
Duration of illness (years)	7.95 ± 5.49
Living status
Alone	6 (8.1)
With family	68 (91.9)
Caregiver
Family members	45 (60.8)
Home care workers	7 (9.5)
Not having caregiver	22 (29.7)
ADL
Independent group	37 (50.0)
Low-level care group	15 (20.3)
High-level care group	22 (29.7)
WHOQOL-BREF
Total WHOQOL score	11.6 ± 2.4
Physical health (domain 1)	11.2 ± 3.2
Psychological well-being (domain 2)	11.5 ± 3.3
Social relationships (domain 3)	12.0 ± 3.2
Environment (domain 4)	12.0 ± 2.3

Data are expressed as frequency (%) and mean ± standard deviation (SD).