Correlations Between the 3 Distress Variables in
Patient–Caregiver Pairs
For those patient and caregiver pairs who completed each
scale (ns range between 26 and 31), correlations between patient and
caregiver distress variables are shown in Table 2. Depression and
life quality were positively correlated within pairs; in other words,
patients who reported less depression and higher quality of life were
associated with caregivers reporting less depression and higher
quality of life. However, caregiver anxiety was significantly negatively
correlated with patient anxiety and patient depression and
significantly positively correlated with patient quality of life. In
other words, caregivers reporting more anxiety were linked to
patients who were less depressed and reported better quality of life.
Reflecting the different directions of intercorrelations among distress
variables, overall distress scores between patients and caregivers
were not significantly correlated (r 0.01, df 39, p 0.948).