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

PURPOSE: 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. METHODS: 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. RESULTS: = 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. CONCLUSION: 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.