Psychological morbidity in family caregivers of people living with terminal cancer: Prevalence and predictors

Abstract

One hundred and twelve family caregivers of individuals with terminal cancer completed an assessment protocol comprising the Brief Symptom Inventory (depression, anxiety, somatization, and a computed score for global distress), the Marwit-Meuser Caregiver Grief Inventory - Short Form (anticipatory grief), the Family Inventory of Needs (importance and satisfaction of needs), and the Systemic Clinical Outcome Routine Evaluation -15 (family functioning). Prevalence of psychological morbidity was determined through descriptive and frequency statistics. Predictors of psychological morbidity were ascertained through structural equation modelling methods. Result Regarding the prevalence of psychological morbidity in family caregivers, 66.1% reported high levels of distress, 68.8% showed high risk of depression, 72.3% showed high risk of anxiety, 50.9% reported high levels of somatization, and 25.9% showed high risk of complicated anticipatory grief. It was found that the predictors of age, gender, relationship to the family member with terminal cancer, the caregiving role played (i.e., primary vs. nonprimary), the satisfaction of needs by healthcare professionals, and family functioning play an important role in terms of one's risk of developing psychological morbidity. Significance of results This study revealed an alarming prevalence of psychological morbidity in family caregivers of individuals living with terminal cancer, making it crucial to move forward from a patient-centered approach to a family-centrad approach to reduce the risk of family maladjustment when facing the imminent death of a family member and to prevent postdeath unadjusted responses.

Development of a home-visit nursing scale for helping spousal caregivers of terminal cancer patients develop positive perspectives of their caregiving experiences: a cross-sectional study

“…Utilising the HNS-HSC is expected to promote the support that nurses lack in their own practice, increase these customs and raise awareness. Unmet needs of family caregivers such as caregiving and family/social support5 62 63 have been shown to be related to their psychological morbidity 5. The HNS-HSC focuses on multiple aspects, and it is expected that the use of this scale will strengthen the fulfilment of spouses’ needs predeath and postdeath and improve their quality of life.…”

“…Among families caring for end-stage cancer patients, 72% had a high risk of anxiety, and over 60% had a risk of distress and depression 5. Additionally, in a domestic study, 79% of such families experienced sleeplessness and 57% experienced a depressed mood.…”

Caring the Cancer Caregivers in the Era of COVID-19 Outbreak

“…Cancer caregivers have a significant amount of psychological burden throughout the disease trajectory. They have high incidence [23] of stress (66.1%), depression (68.8%) and anxiety (72.3%). Female sex, extremes of ages, terminal stage of cancer, family functioning are predictor of high incidence of psychological distress among cancer caregivers [5].…”

Exploring the Score Equivalence of the English and Chinese Versions of the Brief Assessment Scale for Caregivers

“…The 4-point Likert scales for the negatively worded items (items 1-10) were recoded as 3 (not at all), 2 (a little), 1 (some), and 0 (a lot of). Similarly, the "agree/disagree" scale of the positively worded items (items [11][12][13][14] were recoded as 3 (agree a lot), 2 (agree a little), 1 (disagree a little), and 0 (disagree a lot). Items 5 to 14 allowed for a "not applicable" (NA) response.…”

“…The caregiving experience measured by the BASC is important as family caregivers of patients with cancer often face multiple challenges in their informal caregiving and may even have higher levels of unmet needs compared to patients ( 11 – 17 ). The simultaneous trends of longer survival, greater morbidity, and shorter hospital inpatient stays mean that many patients are primarily cared for in the community and that family members play a vital caregiving role ( 18 , 19 ).…”