About
Many people provide support to a family member or friend in need of care. Lending this informal care may have a considerable impact on their life, in negative and positive ways. The overall effect on informal carers depends on the balance between these effects. Because the effects may be substantial and influence the ability of carers to persevere in their caregiving, it is pertinent that evaluations in health care take account of the impact of illness on the significant others of patients, in particular informal carers.
Background
The iVICQ is based on work in this field by Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM) and the institute for Medical Technology Assessment (iMTA), Erasmus University Rotterdam, and discusses how to measure and value:
- Objective burden of caregiving (e.g., duration and intensity)
- Subjective burden of caregiving (e.g., perceptions of strain)
- Health and well-being effects of caregiving
The Care-related Quality of Life instrument (CarerQol) is part of the iMTA Valuation of Informal Care (iVICQ). The CarerQol was designed to measure and value the impact of providing informal care on carergivers.
User conditions
The iVICQ manual and questionnaire may be used without prior permission from the authors. A reference to the iVICQ manual in published work is highly appreciated.
The CarerQol is available for use without prior permission from the authors. Its use is the responsibility of the researcher. Please reference the use of this document in any publication:
Brouwer WB, van Exel NJ, van Gorp B, Redekop WK. The CarerQol instrument: a new instrument to measure care-related quality of life of informal caregivers for use in economic evaluations. Qual Life Res. 2006 Aug;15(6):1005-21. [view]
Comments or questions can be directed to carerqol@imta.eur.nl.
The iVICQ manual and questionnaire may be used without prior permission from the authors. A reference to the iVICQ manual in published work is highly appreciated.
The CarerQol is available for use without prior permission from the authors. Its use is the responsibility of the researcher. Please reference the use of this document in any publication:
Brouwer WB, van Exel NJ, van Gorp B, Redekop WK. The CarerQol instrument: a new instrument to measure care-related quality of life of informal caregivers for use in economic evaluations. Qual Life Res. 2006 Aug;15(6):1005-21. [view]
Comments or questions can be directed to carerqol@imta.nl.