Table 2.

Demographical, clinical, and psychometric data of ALS patients and caregivers

	ALS patients N = 30	Caregivers N = 29	Between group differences
Demographical data
Age	61.26 (13.0)	56.29 (12.1)	n.s
Male/female	14/16	13/16	n.s
Educational level (min 0; max 9)	3.83 (1.7; range 1–7)	3.53 (1.5; range 1–7)	n.s
Working activities (min 0; max 5)	2.34 (1.0; range 0–4)	2.56 (1.1; range 1–5)	n.s
From Northern/Southern Italy	22/8	22/7	n.s
Clinical data
Disease duration (months)	24.88 (18.4)	n.a	–
ALSFRS-R	35.93 (4.8)	n.a	–
King’s clinical stage (1/2/3 / 4)	7/9/13/1	n.a	–
ALS-MITOS (0/1/2/3/4)	20/10/0/0/0	n.a	–
ALS spinal/ALS bulbar/PLS	13/5/2	n.a	–
ALScn/ALSbi/ALSci/ALScbi	13/4/8/5	n.a	–
Neuropsychological data
Frontal Behavioural Inventory	5.64 (15.1; range 0–18)	n.a	–
Dimensional apathy scale (DAS)	19.82 (10.6; range 5–47)	n.a	–
HADS-MND anxiety	4.00 (3.25; range 0–10)	n.a	–
HADS-MND depression	2.79 (3.1; range 0–11)	n.a	–
QoL—ALSAQ-5	6.40 (4.1; range 0–16)	n.a	–
QoL—WhoQol-Age	48.23 (10.5)	51.89 (8.0)	n.s
UCLA 3 Items Loneliness Scale	1.10 (1.6, range 0–5)	n.a	–
Caregiver burden inventory	n.a	13.96 (15.1, range 0–60)	–

ALSAQ-5 The Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Assessment Questionnaire (5-item version), ALSbi ALS patients fulfilling Strong criteria for behavioural impairment, ALSci ALS patients fulfilling Strong criteria for cognitive impairment, ALScbi ALS patients fulfilling criteria for ALSci and ALSbi, ALScn cognitively-normal ALS patients (i.e.: patients not fulfilling Strong criteria for ALSci and/or ALSbi), ALSFRS-R the Revised ALS Functional Rating Scale, ALS-MITOS ALS Milano-Torino Staging System, n.a. not available data, n.s. not significant difference, PLS Primary Lateral Sclerosis, QoL Quality of Life, WhoQol-Age The World Health Organization Quality of Life in the Aging population