Quality of life, psychological burden, needs, and satisfaction during specialized inpatient palliative care in family caregivers of advanced cancer patients

BMC Palliative Care

Research Article

Corinna Bergelt¹  Lilian Ascherfeld²  Karin Oechsle²  Carsten Bokemeyer²  Anneke Ullrich³  Gabriella Marx⁴ 

[1] Department of Medical Psychology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany;Department of Oncology, Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplant, Palliative Care Unit, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany;Department of Oncology, Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplant, Palliative Care Unit, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany;Department of Medical Psychology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany;Department of Palliative Medicine, University Medical Center Göttingen, Von-Siebold-Str. 3, 37075, Göttingen, Germany;

关键词: Family caregiver;    Cancer;    Palliative care;    Quality of life;    Psychological burden;    Supportive needs;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12904-017-0206-z

 received in 2016-12-12, accepted in 2017-04-28,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThis pilot study aimed to investigate quality of life, psychological burden, unmet needs, and care satisfaction in family caregivers of advanced cancer patients (FCs) during specialized inpatient palliative care (SIPC) and to test feasibility and acceptance of the questionnaire survey.MethodsDuring a period of 12 weeks, FCs were recruited consecutively within 72 h after the patient’s admission. They completed validated scales on several outcomes: quality of life (SF-8), distress (DT), anxiety (GAD-7), depression (PHQ-9), supportive needs (FIN), palliative care outcome (POS), and satisfaction with care (FAMCARE-2). We used non-parametric tests, t-tests and correlation analyses to address our research questions.ResultsFCs showed high study commitment: 74 FCs were asked to participate whereof 54 (73%) agreed and 51 (69%) returned the questionnaire. Except for “bodily pain”, FCs’ quality of life (SF-8) was impaired in all subscales. Most FCs (96%) reported clinically significant own distress (DT), with sadness, sorrows and exhaustion being the most distressing problems (80–83%). Moderate to severe anxiety (GAD-7) and depression (PHQ-9) were prevalent in 43% and 41% of FCs, respectively. FCs scored a mean number of 16.3 of 20 needs (FIN) as very or extremely important (SD 3.3), 20% of needs were unmet in >50% of FCs. The mean POS score assessed by FCs was 16.6 (SD 5.0) and satisfaction (FAMCARE-2) was high (73.4; SD 8.3).ConclusionsThis pilot study demonstrated feasibility of the questionnaire survey and showed relevant psychosocial burden and unmet needs in FCs during SIPC. However, FCs’ satisfaction with SIPC seemed to be high. A current multicenter study evaluates these findings longitudinally in a large cohort of FCs.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017