Depression in caregivers of patients with breast cancer: A cross-sectional study from a cancer research center in South India

Abstract

Context: Existing literature suggests an alarming rate of depression in cancer caregivers, which is comparable to or even higher than in patients themselves. There are no studies on depression among caregivers of breast cancer from India. Aims: The aim is to study the prevalence and determinants of depression in caregivers of breast cancer. Settings and Design: This is a cross-sectional study of 384 patient-caregiver dyads at a cancer research center in South India. Materials and Methods: Based on the International Classification of Diseases, 10 th Revision Diagnostic Criteria for Research depression was diagnosed, and the severity of depression was assessed using the Hamilton rating scale for depression. A semi-structured pro forma was used to collect the clinical data under patient, caregivers, and care characteristics. Results: The prevalence of depression in caregivers was 52.5%. Among them, 35% had mild depression, 16% had moderate depression, and 2% had severe depression. Spousal caregivers, those who resided with the patient, those providing financial support and those with noncaring domestic responsibilities appeared as vulnerable determinants in univariate analysis. However, multivariate analysis did not support the same. Conclusion: Depression is common among caregivers of patients with breast cancer. There is a need for focused interventions for this group, which may improve the outcome of the patient as well.

Caregiving motivations and experiences among family caregivers of patients living with advanced breast cancer in Ghana

“…The progressive nature of advanced breast cancer and its treatment resulted in declining functional status which resulted in patients being unable to perform daily living activities such as grooming, groceries, and bathing. Our findings correspond with earlier research works which posit that caregivers of women diagnosed with advanced breast cancer provided support with activities of daily living [14,49].…”

Burden among family caregivers of breast cancer patients in north coastal Andhra Pradesh: a hospital based cross-sectional study

“…4,6,7 In the present study, majority of the care givers (91.55%) were from nuclear families. The findings were similar to a study done by Sreeja et al 8 In the present study, majority (71.56%) of the care givers were literates and (55.56%) were employed. The study also revealed that being involved in care providing, made some of the caregivers to quit from their livelihood wages.…”

“…The study also revealed that being involved in care providing, made some of the caregivers to quit from their livelihood wages. The findings are similar to studies by Kulkarni et al, Malathi et al, Sreeja et al [7][8][9] 4% 7% 16% 40%…”

The experiences of family caregivers living with breast cancer patients in low-and middle-income countries: a systematic review

“…Following the full-text screening, 107 were excluded because they did not meet the inclusion criteria as detailed in the PRISMA flow diagram. At the end of the screening procedure, 19 peer-reviewed citations remained for final inclusion in the review [3,4,6,10,15,[17][18][19][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33].…”

“…The majority of the included studies (n = 15) used quantitative approaches [3,10,15,18,19,[23][24][25][26][27][28][30][31][32][33] and the remaining (n = 4) were qualitative studies [4,6,17,29]. Studies were conducted in the following countries: Nigeria (n = 2), Malaysia (n = 3), Ghana (n = 1), China (n = 3), Iran (n = 6), Turkey (n = 1), Mexico (n = 1), Indonesia (n = 1), and India (n = 1).…”