ASPO Abstracts
Caregiving Responsibilities, Social Support, and Well-Being in Family Caregivers of Patients with Brain Metastases
Category: Survivorship & Health Outcomes/Comparative Effectiveness Research
Conference Year: 2019
Abstract Body:
Purpose of the study: Relatively little work has explored caregiving responsibilities, social support, and well-being in family caregivers (FCGs) of patients with brain metastases; this study aimed to help fill this gap in the literature. Methods: Data were drawn from a larger pilot study. Participants were 21 FCGs of patients with brain metastases. FCGs completed the Zarit Caregiver Burden-12, Coping Self-Efficacy, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, a modified version of the Duke-UNC Functional Social Support Questionnaire (FSSQ), and Duke Social Support and Stress Scale (DUSCOCS). Results: On average, FCGs were 60.5 years old (SD=9.6), female (57.1%), White (95.2%), non-Hispanic (85.7%). Most FCGs were the patient’s spouse (85.7%), had a college degree (57.1%) and annual household income of ≥$75,000 (57.1%), and were not working (61.9%). Most (47.6%) reported caregiving 7-20 hours/week; 23.8% reported more. On average, FCGs helped with 5.8 (SD=3.3) activities of daily living, most commonly housework (76.2%) and meal preparation (76.2%). FCGs reported subclinical anxiety (M=7.5, SD=3.3) and elevated depression (M=9.1, SD=1.6). They perceived moderate social support (FSSQ M=4.6, SD=1.0, range=1-6; DUSOCS Support M=49.1, SD=20.3) and low social stress (DUSOCS Stress M=16.0, SD=14.4). FCGs reported mild-to-moderate burden (M=10.4, SD=6.4), and moderate preparedness for caregiving (M=2.5, SD=0.7). They also reported relatively high coping self-efficacy (M=89.7, SD=25.9) and resilience (M=75.6, SD=14.5). Income was negatively associated with depression (r=-.47, p<.05). Burden was positively correlated with time caregiving (r=.59, p<.01), anxiety (r=.54, p<.05) and depression (r=.59, p<.01), and negatively correlated with FSSQ (r=-.57, p<.01). FSSQ was negatively related to anxiety (r=-.63, p<.01) and depression (r=-.46, p<.05) and positively correlated with coping self-efficacy (r=.66, p<.01). Conclusions: Though FCGs reported mitigating factors like resilience, they still experienced significant distress. Low/moderate levels of social support and social stress may reflect social isolation. Findings support previous work suggesting that neuro-oncology caregiving is burdensome, with adverse effects on health and well-being.
Keywords: caregiving; social support; well-being