Williams Anna-Leila, Dixon Jane, Feinn Richard, McCorkle Ruth
Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT, USA.
Yale University School of Nursing, New Haven, CT, USA.
Psychooncology. 2015 Jul;24(7):825-31. doi: 10.1002/pon.3647. Epub 2014 Aug 11.
Prevalence estimates for clinical depression among cancer family caregivers (CFC) range upwards to 39%. Research inconsistently reports risk for CFC depressive symptoms when evaluating age, gender, ethnicity, or length of time as caregiver. The discrepant findings, coupled with emerging literature indicating religiosity may mitigate depression in some populations, led us to investigate religion-related variables to help predict CFC depressive symptoms.
We conducted a cross-sectional study of 150 CFC. Explanatory variables included age, gender, spousal status, length of time as caregiver, attendance at religious services, and prayer. The outcome variable was the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale score.
Compared with large national and state datasets, our sample has lower representation of individuals with no religious affiliation (10.7% vs. 16.1% national, p = 0.07 and 23.0% state, p = 0.001), higher rate of attendance at religious services (81.3% vs. 67.2% national, p < 0.001 and 30.0% state, p < 0.001), and higher rate of prayer (65.3% vs. 42.9% national, p < 0.001; no state data available). In unadjusted and adjusted models, prayer is not significantly associated with caregiver depressive symptoms or clinically significant depressive symptomology. Attendance at religious services is associated with depressive symptoms (p = 0.004) with an inversely linear trend (p = 0.002).
The significant inverse association between attendance at religious services and depressive symptoms, despite no association between prayer and depressive symptoms, indicates that social or other factors may accompany attendance at religious services and contribute to the association. Clinicians can consider supporting a CFC's attendance at religious services as a potential preventive measure for depressive symptoms.
癌症家庭照顾者（CFC）中临床抑郁症的患病率估计高达39%。在评估年龄、性别、种族或照顾者时长时，研究对CFC抑郁症状风险的报告并不一致。这些矛盾的研究结果，再加上新出现的文献表明宗教信仰可能会减轻某些人群的抑郁情绪，促使我们研究与宗教相关的变量，以帮助预测CFC的抑郁症状。
我们对150名CFC进行了一项横断面研究。解释变量包括年龄、性别、婚姻状况、照顾者时长、参加宗教仪式情况和祈祷情况。结果变量是流行病学研究中心抑郁量表得分。
与大型国家和州数据集相比，我们的样本中无宗教信仰者的比例较低（10.7%，而全国为16.1%，p = 0.07；州为23.0%，p = 0.001），参加宗教仪式的比例较高（81.3%，而全国为67.2%，p < 0.001；州为30.0%，p < 0.001），祈祷的比例较高（65.3%，而全国为42.9%，p < 0.001；无州数据）。在未调整和调整后的模型中，祈祷与照顾者抑郁症状或临床显著抑郁症状无显著关联。参加宗教仪式与抑郁症状相关（p = 0.004），呈反向线性趋势（p = 0.002）。
尽管祈祷与抑郁症状无关联，但参加宗教仪式与抑郁症状之间存在显著的反向关联，这表明参加宗教仪式可能伴随着社会或其他因素，并促成了这种关联。临床医生可考虑支持CFC参加宗教仪式，作为预防抑郁症状的一项潜在措施。
