Women with advanced breast cancer and their spouses: diversity of support and psychological distress

Abstract

Objective: The current study examines the effect of perceived support from different agents (spouse, family, friends, religion-spirituality) on psychological distress experienced by women with advanced breast cancer and their male spouses.Methods: In all, 150 couples consisting of women with advanced breast cancer and their spouses completed the Cancer Perceived Agent of Support Questionnaire and the Brief Symptom Inventory Scale.Results: Spouses reported more psychological distress (global, depression and anxiety) than patients. Both patients and spouses report a similar level of spousal support, and spouses reported a lower level of support provided from family and friends. Perceived support in the current study contributed significantly to the explanations of global psychological distress, depression and anxiety both for patients and their spouses. However, the specific agents of support that were significant in explaining these outcomes varied between patients and their spouses. For patients, family support received by both patient and partner was the most important source of support, protecting from psychological distress, while for the male partners, support from friends was most important. Religious-based support was found to contribute negatively to the psychological distress of the patient and spouse.Conclusions: This study emphasizes the role of breast cancer spouses as care receivers in parallel to their role as caregivers, which is especially important in light of the high psychological distress reported by the spouses. The findings support the buffering effect, which different agents of support have against psychological distress while facing cancer for both patients and spouses. Patients and spouses differ with regard to the agents of support possessing this buffering effect.

Living Experiences of Male Spouses of Patients with Metastatic Cancer in Taiwan

“…Men delay seeking help or are unwilling to seek help because of masculinity norms, stereotypes, traditional values (Galdas et al, 2005;Addis and Mahalik, 2003). Hasson-Ohayon et al (2010) found that friend is the most important support for the male partner. Getting together male's support group may be benefit strategy.…”

“…Moreover, with the worsening of the patients' physical function and emotions, caregivers also experience fatigue and overload (Gaugler et al, 2005). Being as a caregiver, male spouse of metastatic cancer patients are at high risk of physical and psychological distress (Hasson-Ohayon et al, 2010).…”

“…Families especially the spouse are mostly the main caregivers of patients with cancer, the needs of the families should be supported and be paid attention. Many studies have indicated that the emotional distress suffered by the spouse is higher than that suffered by the patient; however, the social support for the spouse is less than that for the patient (Hasson-Ohayon et al, 2010). Moreover, patients' distress is associated with that of the caregivers (Matthews, 2003).…”

Esperança de vida de pacientes com câncer submetidos à quimioterapia

“…This result underscores the need to consider that, for improvement of levels of hope and consequent prospect of future health of patients undergoing chemotherapy, it is important that health professionals pay attention to the "feeling alone" and develop care plans that reduce this feeling. Support networks contribute to coping with cancer, and such support may come from other family members, as well as relations of friendship in the community, (10) including the social, economic and functional and/or emotional spheres.…”

Investigation of sleep quality and psychological problems in cancer caregivers

“…[17] Yapılan diğer çalışmalarda da benzer olarak bakım veren eşlerin daha yüksek oranda depresyon yaşadığı ve hastanın eşi olmanın bakım verenin depresyonuna katkıda bulunan önemli faktörler-den birisi olduğu belirtilmiştir. [20,28] Çalışmalar da bakım verenlerde kötü sağlık durumu ile yüksek düzeyde depresyon oranlarının ilişkili olduğu vurgulanmaktadır. [10,[29][30][31] Bakımda destek almayan bakım verenlerin depresyon ortalama puanlarının yüksek olduğu tespit edilmiştir (p<0.05) (Tablo 3).…”