Quality Of Life And Its Related Factors In Caregivers Of Patients With Breast Cancer

Background:Breast cancer is one of the most common neoplasm in women,the prevalence of which was highest among all the neoplasms in women.Patients with breast cancer often experience surgery,chemotherapy and radiotherapy to prevent the advancing of tumor.They also should go to the hospital at regular intervals to detect tumor recurrence or metastasis in time.Tumor and treatment impairs bodies of the patients,including losing the breasts,hair loss,obesity,rash and pigmentation,and some uncomfortable symptoms,including fatigue,nausea and vomiting,and sleep disorders.Women experience not only the physical discomfort,but also psychological disorders.They need help for life and support to cope with cancer,especially the help and support from caregivers.In the recent medical care system,caregivers are encouraged to be a member of the health care system and to take part in the whole process of treatment.Caregivers need to take care of the physical health of the patients,and to give them psychological support.For meeting the need of the patients,caregivers change their own life,quit the job,stop doing exercises and attending social activities.All these will impair physical and mental health of the caregivers.Patients experience severs stress during the initial treatment after diagnosis,and so do the caregivers.It is important to explore the quality of life of caregivers and its related factors in this stage.Objective:We aimed to exam the quality of life of the caregivers of patients with breast cancer,to explore their related factors,including medical characteristics of the patients,demographic characteristics of the caregivers,relationship with the patients,social support and psychological resilience,and to test the mediating and moderating roles of psychological resilience between social support and quality of life.Methods:Hospitalized patients diagnosed with breast cancer were recruited from April 2016 to March 2017 in a general hospital in Shandong Province.The self-designed demographic questionnaire,Medical Outcome Study 12-Item Short Form Health Survey,Version 2(SF-12V2),Perceived social support(PSSS),and 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale(CD-RISC-10)were used to collect information about demographic characteristics and measure the quality of life,perceived social support and psychological resilience of the caregivers.The liner regression analyses were used to explore the related factors the the quality of life.Results:(1)179 caregivers of breast cancer patients completed the questionnaires.They were 20-74 years old,and the mean age was 44.65±10.92.125(69.8%)caregivers were male,171(95.5%)were married,92(51.4%)got education of high school or lower,85(47.5%)had the family income of 2000-4000 RMB per month,137(76.5%)had jobs,114(63.7%)were husbands of the patients,and 41(22.9%)were offspring of the patients.144(80.4%)patients received modified radical mastectomy and 110(61.5%)was in the middle and late stage of the cancer.(2)The scores of eight domains of SF-12 of the caregivers range from 59.64 to 74.02,with the three highest domains being Physical Functioning,Role-Emotional and Role-Physical,and the lowest being General Health.The score of Physical Component Summary(PCS)and Mental Component Summary(MCS)were 48.39±8.05 and 49.56±8.68,respectively,being lower than the general population.(3)Age(B=-0.141,95%CI:-0.249?-0.034,P=0.010)and cancer stage(B=-3.612,95%CI:-6.000?-1.224,P=0.003)were negatively correlated with PCS,and friends support(B=0.531,95%CI:0.295?0.766,P=0.000)and psychological resilience(B=0.414,95%CI:0.305?0.522,P=0.000)was positively correlated with MCS.(4)In the multiple regression analyses,age(B=-0.144,95%CI:-0.274?-0.014,SE=0.066,Beta=-0.194,P=0.030)and cancer stage(B=-4.102,95%CI:-6.541?-1.663,SE=1.235,Beta=-0.247,P=0.001)also showed negative impact on PCS.The regression model was statistically significant(R2=0.139,F=2.959,P=0.003).For In the multiple regression analyses for MCS,psychological resilience was positively correlated with MCS(B=0.368,95%CI:0.244?0.491,SE=0.063,Beta=0.433,P=0.000).The regression model was statistically significant(R2=0.259,F=19.739,P=0.000).Conclusions:(1)The physical health and mental health of the caregiver of breast cancer were lower than the general population.(2)Caregivers with older age and higher cancer stage reported lower physical health,and those with higher psychological resilience reported better mental health,(3)The relationship between friends support and MCS was mediated and moderated by psychological resilience.