Caregiver contribution to patient self‑care and quality of life among informal carers of adult patients with inflammatory bowel disease: a cross‑sectional study.

Authors

Daniele Napolitano, Maria Francisca Murgiano Gonzalo, Alessio Lo Cascio, Fabrizio Benedetti, Arianna Povoli, Teresa Sanità, Valeria Suriano, Greta Lorenzon, Arianna Luongo, Debora Zaetta, Francesca De Marinis, Nicoletta Orgiana, Giulia Petruccini, Valentina Vanzi, Francesco Pastore, Adriana Rivera-Sequeiros, Mattia Bozzetti

Published in

Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation. Volume 35. Issue 8. Jun 15, 2026. Epub Jun 15, 2026.

Abstract

Informal caregivers play a critical role in the management of adult patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), yet the association between their contribution to patient self-care and their own health-related quality of life (HRQoL) remains underexplored. This study aimed to examine the cross-sectional association between caregivers' contribution to patient self-care and caregivers' physical and mental HRQoL.
A multicentre cross-sectional study was conducted across nine IBD centres in Italy. Caregiver contribution to patient self-care was assessed using the Caregiver Contribution to Self-Care of Chronic Illness Inventory (CC-SC-CII), including Maintenance, Monitoring, and Management domains. HRQoL was measured using the 12-Item Short Form Survey, yielding Physical Component Summary (PCS-12) and Mental Component Summary (MCS-12) scores. Generalized Additive Models were used to estimate potential non-linear associations between CC-SC-CII domains and HRQoL.
The study included 275 informal caregivers. No statistically supported associations were observed between CC-SC-CII Maintenance, Monitoring, or Management and PCS-12. For MCS-12, only CC-SC-CII Maintenance showed a statistically supported non-linear association (edf = 4.34, F = 2.21, p = 0.018; adjusted R² = 0.272; deviance explained = 38.1%). The model-estimated MCS-12 difference between the 75th and 25th percentiles of CC-SC-CII Maintenance was 6.58 points (95% CI 1.50-11.70). No statistically supported associations were observed for CC-SC-CII Monitoring or Management and MCS-12.
Caregiver contribution to patient self-care maintenance was associated with caregivers' mental, but not physical, HRQoL. The findings should be interpreted as exploratory associations and require confirmation in longitudinal dyadic studies including both caregiver- and patient-reported outcomes.

PMID:
42295561
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 15 Jun 2026.

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