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Anxiety, depression common in family caregivers of patients with cancer
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Caregivers of patients with cancer who had a higher caregiving intensity were likely to experience poor self-care, which in turn lead to anxiety, depression and worse quality of life, according to study results presented at the Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium.
“Caregivers and patients are faced with an enormous physical and emotional toll when dealing with advanced cancer,” J. Nicholas Dionne-Odom, PhD, RN, post-doctoral fellow at University of Alabama at Birmingham, said in a press release. “When they put their own health and well-being on the back burner, it can affect their care to the patient.”
Because caregivers can perform a variety of labor-intensive tasks — such as administering medications, providing transportation, assisting with daily activities, providing emotional support, coordinating finances and advocating for health care — Dionne-Odom and colleagues sought to identify differences in self-care behaviors according to level of caregiving intensity, well-being and performance.
Researchers conducted a survey of 294 family caregivers (median age, 66 years; 72.8% women; 91.2% white) of Medicare beneficiaries diagnosed with pancreatic, lung, brain, ovarian, head and neck, hematologic or other stage IV cancers. The patients were treated at one of eight community cancer centers in Alabama, Florida and Tennessee.
The majority of caregivers were retired (54.4%) and were the patients’ spouse or partner (60.2%).
Seventy-one percent of the caregivers had provided care to the patient for 6 to 7 days a week, and 68% did so for more than 1 year.
The caregivers responded to measures of self-care behaviors, such as health responsibility, physical activity, nutrition, spiritual growth, interpersonal relations, stress management and sleep. Researchers also assessed caregivers for anxiety and depression, their competence and preparedness, and decision-making self-efficacy.
Overall, caregivers were more likely to have slower self-care scores if they worked longer hours and more days a week, especially if the patient had fair or poor health.
Lower scores in each self-care subdomain were significantly associated with worse anxiety, depression and mental quality-of-life scores (P < .05 for all).
Twenty-three percent of caregivers had high depression scores, and 34% had borderline or high anxiety scores.
Caregivers with lower competence, preparedness and decision-making efficacy were also likely to have lower spiritual growth, interpersonal relations and stress management scores.
“We hope our research rallies the oncology palliative care communities to develop assessment tools and services that support caregivers,” Dionne-Odom said. “These efforts would help ensure that caregivers are supported and healthy when they take on the important role of caring for an individual with advanced cancer.” – by Alexandra Todak
Reference:
Dionne-Odom JN, et al. Abstract 239. Scheduled for presentation at: Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium; Sept. 9-10, 2016; San Francisco.
Disclosure: One researcher reports travel accommodations or research funding from Carevive Systems, Medscape and PackHealth. Another researcher reports employment with Aspire Health.