Objective: To explore which aspects of well-being impact on marital relationship satisfaction among people with Parkinsonian dementias and their spouses.

Background: Dyadic relationships in Parkinson’s disease (PD) are described as mutual and close but, due to the complex nature of the motor and non-motor symptoms, face challenges that can transform a partnership into ‘caregiver – care recipient’ roles. Depression and apathy significantly predict and contribute to caregiver burden, and this can negatively impact on relationship satisfaction. As such, it is important to investigate the impact of physical, emotional and mental well-being factors on the dyadic relationship satisfaction, which has not been previously explored in Parkinsonian dementias.

Methods: Participants with Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD) or Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) and their spouses are being recruited to this cross-sectional study. Measures of physical, emotional and mental well-being, caregiver burden and stress and relationship satisfaction are collected and the associations among these variables, with respect to relationship satisfaction, are explored.

Results: Interim results revealed that people with PDD or DLB who had shorter disease duration, lower disease severity and higher health-related quality of life were more satisfied with their relationship. In contrast, greater relationship satisfaction of spouses was associated with lower levels of anxiety, depression, burden and stress. Interestingly, higher apathy in people with PD was the only neuropsychiatric symptom that significantly contributed to both patients’ and spouses’ lower relationship satisfaction. Overall, spouses were less satisfied with their marital relationship than their partners.

Conclusions: Relationship satisfaction is associated with physical well-being in people with PDD or DLB and with mental and emotional well-being in spouses. Further analyses among relationship satisfaction and key behavioural variables are being sought.

These unpublished results have been presented at the Parkinson’s UK conference on 11/7/2016.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/what-impacts-relationship-satisfaction-in-parkinsonian-dementias/