Spouse cancer caregivers’ burden and distress at entry to home hospice

Abstract

High-quality relationships may be protective for family caregivers. This study focuses on relationship quality categories (supportive and ambivalent) in spouse caregivers in cancer home hospice. The goals of this article are to, first, describe relationship quality categories among end-of-life caregivers and, second, test the effects of relationship quality categories on caregiver burden and distress within a stress process model. Using questionnaire data collected at entry to home hospice, we found relationship quality categories were proportionally similar to those seen in noncaregiver older adults. Relationship quality significantly predicted caregiver burden, which completely mediated the relationship between caregiver relationship quality and distress. Caregivers whose social contexts place them at risk for greater distress may benefit from increased clinical attention or intervention.

Protective Factors of Demoralization among Cancer Patients in Taiwan: An Age-matched and Gender-matched Study

“…Age 65 was the cutoff point of this study, and participants were divided into three groups according to age: < 50 years, 50 to 64 years, and 65 years. The cancer patient's spouse often played a key personal role in the support system and acted as a protective buffer during the disease process [23,24]. This has been somewhat supported in a previous study, wherein the presence or absence of a spouse was a predictive factor for recurrence and survival among cancer patients [25].…”

Outcomes of collage art-based and narrative self-expression among home hospice caregivers

“…In a study on caregiver interest in formal support services, caregivers with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and a lack of preparation expressed a strong interest in receiving support services (Dionne-Odom et al, 2017). The use of support services was found to be low (Dionne-Odom et al, 2017), especially when compared with the increased stress (Washington et al, 2018), anxiety, depression (Reblin et al, 2016), and complicated grief (Hudson et al, 2012;Schulz, Boerner, Shear, Zhang, & Gitlin, 2006) experienced by caregivers.…”

Co-afflicted but invisible: A qualitative study of perceptions among informal caregivers in cancer care

“…Informal caregivers have been described as experiencing psychological, social, relational, emotional, and financial burden (Halpern et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2018). Increased levels of distress and anxiety are reported by half of informal caregivers of patients with advanced-stage cancer (Reblin et al, 2016;Rumpold et al, 2016).…”