The burden among family caregivers of elderly cancer patients: prospective study in a Moroccan population

Abstract

BackgroundIn Morocco, families play a major role in caring for elderly cancer patients.MethodsWe conducted a prospective descriptive study, in the National Institute of Oncology in Morocco. The study aimed to include family members who are caregivers for patients aged ≥70 years old.FindingsAfter obtaining IRB approval, a total of 150 caregivers responded to the questionnaire. Mean age was 44.7 years. The majority were females (59.3%), living in urban areas (66.7%), and educated (62.7%).Offspring (sons or daughters) represented 56.7, 54% lived with their relatives in the same house. Most of the participants were married and have familial responsibilities. In relatives, anxiety was found in 79.3%, it was related to fear of losing the patient in 57% and resulted in the use of anxiolytics in 10%. Guilt feeling towards patients regarding neglecting their early symptoms was reported in 38%. Depression and anxiety were more frequent among female relatives and among those of urban origin. Obsession of dying from cancer was present in about 30% and fear of contagion was more common among those from rural areas and illiterate. Economic resources were exceeded in 78.7 and 56% have used banking credits, and sale of properties. Work lay-off was recorded in 54%. Relatives participated in treatment making decisions in 86% of patients.ConclusionEven there was a great impact on elderly cancerous patients relatives, the benefits of caregiving was observed in 80%. More studies have to be conducted, especially in developing countries where the lack of resources majors the impact on family caregivers.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13104-015-1307-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Psychosocial Challenges of Caring For the Elderly: A Study of Family Caregivers in Enugu Urban, Southeastern Nigeria

“…This psychological burden is not peculiar to family caregivers in Enugu urban. Similar studies in Nigeria (Ebimgbo et al, 2019;Ogunmodede et al, 2019) and Morocco (Lkhoyaali, et al, 2015) found that family caregivers underwent tremendous stress, psychological distress, depression and extreme anxieties while giving care to the elderly.…”

Cancer in Moroccan elderly: the first multicenter transverse study exploring the sociodemographic characteristics, clinical profile and quality of life of elderly Moroccan cancer patients

“…- In the Moroccan context, it is usual for the family to ask the doctor to hide the diagnosis of cancer from the patient [14], so we included this question in the questionnaire.…”

Prevalence and predictors of psychosocial problems in informal caregivers of older cancer survivors - A systematic review: Still major gaps in current research

“…The results on depression also vary. Almost one-quarter of family caregivers participating in study of Lkhoyaali et al (2015) were depressed. Another study showed that the caregivers scored considerably higher on depression compared to the UK adult general population sample with almost one-quarter of all these caregivers being moderately, severely or even extreme severely depressed (Kurtz et al, 2004).…”

“…Depression was measured with: DSM-IV(Lkhoyaali et al, 2015), the depression subscale of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS21)(Jones et al, 2015), the Geriatric Depression Scale (5-item GDS)(Goldzweig, Baider, Andritsch, & Pfeffer, 2016) and (a subscale of) the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)(Bachner et al, 2009;Kurtz, Kurtz, Given, & Given, 2004;Raveis et al, 1998). All of the above are validated scales except the DSM-IV.…”