Exploring the other side of cancer care: the informal caregiver

Objectives: To identify the caregiver outcomes among relatives caring for patients with cancer and to examine the patient and family caregiver variables that predicted for caregiver burden and depression.

Methods: One hundred and thirty caregivers completed the Greek versions of the Burden Interview (BI), the Center of Epidemiology – Depression Scale (CES-D) and the Ways of Coping Questionnaire. Principal component analysis was performed to examine the underlying dimensions of caregiver outcome measures. One-way ANOVA and independent sample t-tests were used to test for differences in burden and depression in relation to demographic variables of interest. One-way ANOVA was used for examining differences in coping strategies.

Findings: One-way ANOVA showed that there are significant differences among the various educational levels (p<0.001) and the income (p<0.005) of the caregiver in terms of overall burden. 66.4% of caregivers had a depression above the usual cutoff point for depression. An independent samples t-test for possible gender differences, showed that there is a significant difference between males and females (p=0.29). In regression analysis it was found that only caregiver's income and patient's age are statistically significant in predicting burden and depression. When considering high-burdened caregivers results showed that there are significant differences in the use of coping strategies (p<0.001).

Conclusions:Caregivers reported high levels of burden and depression. These outcomes of caregiving are related to several variables, but the caregiver's income and patient's age are predictive. Intervention strategies are needed to the vulnerable caregivers to help reduce burden and depression associated with caregiving.