| The purpose of this study was to describe the caregiving tasks for spousal caregivers of coronary artery bypass (CAB) surgery patients and cancer patients, and to evaluate the relationships between age, gender, time since surgery, caregiving demand, caregiving difficulty, mutuality, interpersonal sensitivity, and depression in caregivers of CAB surgery patients. Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) theory of Stress and Coping provided the conceptual framework for this study. The sample size was 35 caregivers of CAB surgery patients and 30 caregivers of cancer patients. Descriptive analysis was used to describe the caregiving tasks for both groups, while non-parametric statistics (Spearman's rho) were used to evaluate the correlations among caregiving correlates in CAB surgery caregivers. In addition, Mann-Whitney U statistics were used to examine differences between caregivers with low vs. high caregiving demands in the study outcomes.;It was found that providing transportation and additional household tasks were two of the most demanding and difficult activities for both CAB surgery caregivers and cancer caregivers. Other highly ranked demands and difficulties were additional tasks outside the home, monitoring symptoms, and providing emotional support. Mean scores of caregiving demands and difficulties were higher in spousal caregivers of cancer patients compared to caregivers of CAB surgery patients. Caregiving demand was found to be positively related to caregiving difficulty (rho = 0.365, p<0.05) and there was a trend toward a positive relationship with mutuality (rho = 0.319, p = 0.07). Mutuality was positively related to caregiving difficulty (rho = 0.497, p<0.001) and to interpersonal sensitivity (rho = 0.581, p<0.001). There was no evidence that depression was related to any study variables. Caregivers of CAB surgery patients with high caregiving demands were found to have greater caregiving difficulties (18.5 vs. 26, p=0.035), more mutuality (illness-related communication) (28 vs. 22, p=0.038), and a trend toward more interpersonal sensitivity (32 vs. 26, p=.081) than caregivers with low caregiving demands. Examining the demanding and difficult caregiving tasks in caregivers of CAB surgery patients and cancer patients and the factors that they are related to provides a starting point from which to develop and test tailored interventions for caregivers of these populations. |
