Trajectories of caregiver burden and related factors in family caregivers of patients with lung cancer

Abstract

The results support the existing and different types of subtrajectories of the FC's burden. Health care professionals should provide care based on those differences. Further research to test interventions which integrate those important factors related to FC's burden, particularly FC's self-efficacy, is strongly suggested.

Current Advances in Palliative & Hospice Care: Problems and Needs of Relatives and Family Caregivers During Palliative and Hospice Care—An Overview of Current Literature

“…Regarding the year of publication, 36 out of 62 articles were published in 2017 and 28 in 2018. Countries where the respective studies were conducted were the USA/Canada ( n = 23) [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31], Scandinavia ( n = 7) [32,33,34,35,36,37,38], UK ( n = 4) [39,40,41,42], Germany ( n = 4) [43,44,45,46], Southern Europe (Italy, Portugal, Spain; n = 8) [47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54], East Asia (Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan; n = 4) [55,56,57,58,59,60], Australia/New Zealand ( n = 4) [61,62,63,64], other ( n = 4) [65,66,67,68], and multinational ( n = 2) [69,70].…”

“…Forty-seven studies reported on relatives of advanced cancer patient’s [9,10,11,13,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,34,36,37,38,39,42,43,44,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,65,66,67] and 15 studies included relatives of mixed patient samples [12,14,25,33,35,40,41,45,54,62,63,64,68,69,70]. The environment in which the patient received palliative or hospice care were home care in 18 studies [10,14,25,26,27,30,3...…”

“…The environment in which the patient received palliative or hospice care were home care in 18 studies [10,14,25,26,27,30,33,35,36,37,38,41,42,44,45,54,58,62], specialist inpatient palliative care in four studies [34,43,55,67], inpatient hospice care in 3 studies [13,49,60], mixed settings in 25 studies [9,11,13,19,20,21,22,23,24,28,29,31,32,39,40,47,51,53,56,60,61,63,65,67,70], and 12 other settings/not described [15,16,17,18,46,49,50,52,57,66,68,69]. In 45 studies, the sample only consisted of relatives reporting on their own situation [9,10,11,12,…”

“…In a qualitative study, Williams et al demonstrated that female family caregivers’ burden can also be caused by the adherence to stereotypical gender norms that affect women as primary caregivers [62]. In patients with newly diagnosed lung cancer, the self-efficacy of family caregivers was observed to be the strongest factor for their psychological burden during the patients’ total disease trajectory [57]. Perceived competence, resilience, and positive aspects of caring represented the main predictors of burden in 50 informal caregivers of patients with advanced cancer [65].…”

Closer: A videoconference intervention for distance caregivers of cancer patients

“…Videoconference technology may alleviate some of this stress by allowing DCGs to be “present” for the patients' appointments without worrying about the logistics of traveling to be with them in person. In addition, individualized coaching from trained professionals familiar with the unique needs of DCGs may enhance their sense of self‐efficacy as a caregiver, which has been shown to decrease burden, distress, and anxiety (Kershaw et al, ; Lee et al, ). We hypothesize that for those involved in the videoconference sessions, seeing the patient, meeting the oncologist, and being part of the discussion will lessen the burden of caring from a distance, particularly when paired with monthly coaching sessions to help them navigate the health care system.…”