Objective: Globally, cancer incidence is on the increase and cancer care is complex, psychologically, physically and financially draining. Family caregivers of patients with cancer in low-and middle-income countries not only face enormous challenges in having their patients access comprehensive cancer treatment services but also the critical and complex roles that they play greatly predispose them to role strain.Role strain is multifaceted and encompasses physical, psycho-social and financial strain. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the level of role strain among the family caregivers of patients with cancer and ensure appropriate referral to care and support services. Methodology:The study adopted cross-sectional design involving 255 systematically sampled family caregivers of adult patients attending Kenyatta National Hospital outpatient cancer treatment clinic. Quantitative data from Modified Caregiver Strain Index tool and questionnaire was analysed by deriving descriptive statistics and data was presented by use of tables and figures. SPSS software version 25 was utilized in data analysis.Results: From the study findings, the family caregivers who had mild, moderate and severe role strain were 25.9%, 44.3% and 29.8%, respectively. Conclusion:Role strain was prevalent among family caregivers and this, therefore, calls for healthcare practitioners to assess all family caregivers of adult patients with cancer for role strain and appropriately refer those experiencing moderate to severe strain for psychological counselling, social and financial support.

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Introduction: Cancer diagnosis and treatment are emotionally draining to patients and their caregivers. For a long time, treatment for cancer has been associated with pain, suffering and death. These negative consequences of cancer create psychosocial effects such as anxiety and fear. Therefore, there is need to recognize and accurately identify this psychosocial distress problems on patients with cancer by healthcare providers to figure out interventions for these psychosocial issues.Objective: To assess the psychosocial distress among patients with cancer attending the Machakos county referral hospital palliative care unit.Subjects and Methods: Data were collected through descriptive cross-sectional design where a total of 97 patients were interviewed and filled the questionnaires and the National Cancer Center Network distress thermometer and problem list. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for windows version 24. Descriptive statistics such as the means, standard deviation and frequencies were generated and Pearson Chi square test of association computed to determine the associations between the independent and the dependent variables. The confidence interval was set at 95% (p≤ 0.05).Results: The study findings revealed that 72.2% of the respondents were distressed. Majority (83.3%) of the respondents reported being in pain, 64.9% of them cited problems with decision making about treatment, while 59.8% of the respondents said that they were experiencing fatigue. Other issues cited by the respondents included financial constraints and facing difficulties while eating. The study results also showed that there was statistically significant association between having psychosocial distress and gender (P=0.015) and cancer treatment (P=0.015).Conclusion: There is a very high prevalence of psychosocial distress among patients with cancer with the leading psychosocial distress problem being pain.

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Health seeking practices is critical towards early screening, detection and control of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) whereby human prostate gland is the major cause of benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer (PCA), which mostly accounts for LUTS. Social cultural factors such as cultural beliefs, educational level, income level and religion among many others have a direct influence on health seeking practices both positively and negatively in as far as LUTS are concerned. The researcher explored social cultural factors influencing health seeking practices among men with LUTS attending surgical outpatient clinic at Meru level five hospital (Kenya). De-scriptive cross-sectional study design was used to collect data from 120 men with LUTS, and 4 health workers. Census method was used to select the study participants with questionnaires, interview guide and focused group discussion used as instruments of data collection. Quantitative data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 22, whereas the qualitative data was analyzed using qualitative techniques. Descriptive statistics were computed to generate percentages and frequencies, which were then presented in tables and charts. Logistic regression was used whereby P-values were employed to determine the statistical significance of results with cut off set at (p ≤0.05). Majority (67.0%) of the patients with LUTS were aged between 61-70 years. Also, majority (68.8%) of the respondents had primary level of education, with majority (72.0%) of them being farmers with an income level of below Ksh. 20,000. The study results showed that social cultural factors had statistical significant influence on health seeking practices among men with LUTS.