The Caring-related Problems Experienced by Family Caregivers of Patients With Breast Cancer: A Descriptive Study

Abstract

Introduction: The diagnosis of cancer involves the patients, their caregivers, and families. Caregivers should obtain guidance from health care professionals to promote care facilities. The current study aimed at investigating the economic, socio-individual, informational, and psycho-spiritual problems of caregivers in post-treatment phase of breast cancer. Methods: The present descriptive study was conducted on 251 subjects using a ques- tionnaire consisted of demographic part and the caregivers’ difficulties. Answers were estimated based on a Likert scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: Totally, 42% and 37% of participants were spouses and close relatives, re- spectively; 97%, 89%, and 74% of caregivers had psychological, economic, and spiri- tual problems, respectively. All of the caregivers had individual, emotional, physical, economic, and informational problems with care giving (P<0.0001). Significant rela- tionships were observed between the employee group and individual, emotional, infor- mational, and economic problems (P<0.0001). There were significant negative relation- ships between either of the occupational, educational, relationship, caregiving duration, and marital status with spiritual problems (P<0.0001). Significant correlation was ob- served between the duration of caring and the socio-individual, physical, informational and economic problems (P<0.0001). Conclusions: Although the current study reported insignificant relationships between the socio-individual, informational, and psycho-spiritual problems of caregivers and some demographic variables, related positive trends were observed. Future studies with powerful strategies are needed to alleviate the observed concerns.

Challenges to Family Caregivers in Caring for Gastric Cancer Patients from Perspectives of Family Caregivers, Patients, and Healthcare Providers: A Qualitative Study

“…[15] Studies have shown that family caregivers are not adequately prepared for homebased caregiving and do not receive adequate education about caregiving before their patients are discharged from hospital. [13,16] In addition to a lack of knowledge and limited support, most family caregivers experience an imbalance between their caregiver burden and their own personal needs, which results in many different negative physical, psychological, financial, social, and occupational consequences and negatively affects their quality of life. [8,9,11,14,17] Healthcare providers have an important role in identifying and resolving the challenges faced by family caregivers of cancer patients.…”

“…For example, a study in Iran found that all family caregivers had physical, emotional, financial, and informational problems and 97%, 89%, and 74% of them suffered from psychological, financial, and spiritual problems, respectively. [ 16 ] Another study in Iran showed that family caregivers of cancer patients had unfulfilled needs, mostly in terms of receiving information, attention, and respect from healthcare providers as well as health-related and psychological problems. [ 11 ] A qualitative study in the United Kingdom into patients’ and family caregivers’ experiences of living with a jejunostomy feeding tube after surgery for esophagogastric cancer also showed that they suffered from different physical problems, concerns, and problems in daily living.…”