Study On The Caregiver Burden,Family Function And Social Support Of Caregiver Of Cancer

Purpose:The aim of this study were investigating the caregiver burden of cancer caregivers,analyzing the relation among their family function, social support and caregiver burden,providing family and social support therapy to decease caregiver burden of cancer caregivers.Methods:The observation group consisted of264cancer caregivers,who were randomly selectedfrom the cancer ward and nursing room of our hospital during April2013to October2013.Inclusion criteria of patient:(1)Diagnosed with cancer by pathological examination;(2)live more than one month;(3)have one fixed caregiver. Inclusion criteria of cancercaregivers:(1)more than18years old;(2)look after cancer patients more than1month;(3)thepatients’relatives,look after cancer patients with most time and take primary careresponsibility;(4)can communicate with investigators and volunteered for the survey.Caregivers exclusion criteria:(1) have serious physical and mental diseases and severecognitive impairment.(2)have other major stress event in the near time.Caregivers wererequired to fulfill the following questionnaires:general situation questionnaire, familycaregiver burden scale for family caregivers of the terminal cancer patients, family functionevaluation scale(FAD) and social support rating scale(SSRS). Questionnaires were distributedand gathered on the spot. The data entry used Epidata and the data analysis was performedwith SPSS17.0. Statistical methods such as t test and X2were used to compare the caregiverburden of cancer caregivers. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to analyze the relationamong their family function, social support and caregiver burden. The risk factors were detected by using multiple linear regression model.(1)The average age of cancer caregivers was51.37士13.03. Males were101,accounting for38.3%and female163, with no statistical significance (P＞0.05). The caregiver burden ofdifferences in years, education background, jobs, marital status, family income and physicalwere statistically significant(P＜0.05). The differences were also significant in the course ofdisease,self-care ability, the relationship with the patient, whether a full-time care andcaregiver length(P＜0.05).(2)65.1%of cancer caregivers were moderate burden. The average score of family caregiverburden scale was47.2414.02. According to the dimension scores, from high to low in theorder were economic burden, daily-living burden, physical-psychological burden and spiritualburden.(3)79.1%of cancer caregivers had poor family function. The dimension scores compared withboundary values indicate:①behavior control, family role,emotional response, emotionalinvolving, and problem solving had defect or deviations, with statistically significance(P＜0.05);②communication and general function were on statistical significant (P＞0.05).(4)87.0%of cancer caregivers had medium level social support.The average score of familycaregiver burden scale for family caregivers of the terminal cancer patients was37.346.023higher than norm (34.563.73), with statistical significance(P＜0.05).(5)Significant positive correlation was found between the family caregiver burden scale forfamily caregivers of the terminal cancer patients and negative correlation between the familycaregiver burden scale for family caregivers of the terminal cancer patients and social support.(6)The Linear Regression analysis showed that the caregiver burden of cancer caregivers isclosely related to self-care ability, family income, emotional response, marital status, physical,the relationship with the patient, objective support,marital status and profession. Conclusion:(1)65.1%of cancer caregivers’ caregiver burden scores were from29to57, belong mediumlevel caregiver burden. The heaviest burden of cancer caregivers is economic burden.(2)The family function of cancer caregivers was poor. There was significantly positivecorrelation between caregiver burden and family function among cancer caregivers. Thesocial support of cancer caregivers were medium level support. There was significantlynegative correlation between caregiver burden and social support among cancer caregivers.(3)The family function and social support can directly affect the caregiver burden level, at thesame time, the family function can also be through the social support to influence thecaregiver burden.(4)The influence factors of cancer caregivers’ burden are self-care ability, family income,emotional response, marital status, physical, the relationship with the patient, objectivesupport,marital status and profession.