OBJECTIVES: The Survey of Adult Carers in England (SACE) collects quality of life (QoL) data on unpaid carers who care for a person aged ≥18. The QoL score, known as the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF) 1D, ranges from 0 (lowest score) to 12 (highest score). Other data relating to demographics and carers’ lifestyles are captured. This study aims to determine the key variables related to carer QoL in England.

METHODS: The analysis used SACE 2018-2019 participants with complete data (n=30,987). A multivariate linear regression was conducted in R to assess whether any participant characteristics (dependant variables) were associated with QoL (independent variables). A significance level of 0.05 was used to interpret the results. Variables for inclusion in the regression were identified using stepwise linear regression (forward and back), prior to specification of the final model.

RESULTS: The final model included the following participant characteristics: gender, ethnicity, age, location, age of the cared for person, whether the carer lived with the cared for person or elsewhere, whether the carer had other caring responsibilities, financial difficulties, employment status, length of time the carer has been caring for, the hours of care provided per week, whether the carer has physical impairments and whether the carer suffers with their mental health. Only location (p=0.16) was found to be non-significant. All other variables were significantly associated with QoL, with increased financial difficulties (coef. -1.35; p<0.001), carer mental health conditions (coef. -0.96; p=<0.001) and the hours of care provided per week (coef. -0.82; p<0.001) having a key relationship to QoL.

CONCLUSIONS: The literature detailing influencers on patient QoL is vast, but there is less research exploring influencers on carer QoL. This exploratory analysis, using a large, national data set, investigates key characteristics related to carer QoL.