Division of Nursing Research and Education, Department of Population Sciences, City of Hope.
Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, City of Hope, Duarte, California, USA.
Curr Opin Support Palliat Care. 2019 Sep;13(3):238-242. doi: 10.1097/SPC.0000000000000438.
Informal cancer caregivers play a vital role in the physical, functional, and emotional well being of cancer patients. However, the majority of informal caregivers are not prepared for their caregiving role. We reviewed and synthesized the recent literature (last 18 months) and focused on research in the following understudied areas: technology-driven interventions for informal caregivers; informal caregivers of older adults with cancer; interrelationship between informal caregiver and dyadic outcomes; and research priorities and guidelines to improve informal caregiver support.
Studies focused on technology-driven informal caregiver interventions, with evidence of good feasibility and acceptability with benefits for burden and quality of life (QOL). Studies also focused on QOL for caregivers of older adults with cancer. Finally, research priorities and clinical guidelines were established through Delphi survey studies.
Despite the substantial evidence on informal cancer caregiving, more research is needed to further characterize caregivers at high risk for burden, explicate interrelationships between caregiver/patient outcomes, and test innovative and scalable interventions. Studies are also needed to understand the specific needs of informal caregivers in cancer surgery, an understudied treatment population.
非专业癌症护理人员在癌症患者的身体、功能和情绪健康方面发挥着至关重要的作用。然而，大多数非专业护理人员并未为其护理角色做好准备。我们对最近 18 个月的文献进行了回顾和综合，重点研究了以下研究不足的领域：面向非专业护理人员的技术驱动干预措施；照顾老年癌症患者的非专业护理人员；非专业护理人员和对偶结果之间的相互关系；以及改善非专业护理人员支持的研究重点和指南。
研究集中在技术驱动的非专业护理人员干预措施上，这些措施具有良好的可行性和可接受性，对负担和生活质量（QOL）有好处。研究还关注了照顾老年癌症患者的护理人员的 QOL。最后，通过德尔菲调查研究确定了研究重点和临床指南。
尽管有大量关于非专业癌症护理的证据，但仍需要更多的研究来进一步描述负担风险高的护理人员，阐明护理人员/患者结果之间的相互关系，并测试创新和可扩展的干预措施。还需要研究来了解癌症手术中非专业护理人员的特定需求，这是一个研究不足的治疗人群。
