Faculty of Health, Improving Palliative, Aged and Chronic Care through Clinical Research and Translation (IMPACCT), University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
South Western Sydney Clinical School, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Psychooncology. 2019 Nov;28(11):2149-2156. doi: 10.1002/pon.5200. Epub 2019 Aug 30.
To compare physical and mental health status between cancer carers versus non-carers in a population-based sample and explore sociodemographic and caring characteristics associated with poor carer health status.
The South Australian Health Omnibus is a population-based cross-sectional survey. Carer status was self-defined by participants as having cared for someone with cancer in the last 5 years. Health status was considered poor if it was 0.5 standard deviation lower than Australian norms on the Medical Outcomes Study 12-Item Short-Form (SF-12) physical and mental component summary scores (PCS and MCS). Regression analyses compared mean PCS/MCS between carers versus non-carers, controlling for sociodemographic variables, and explored associations between poor health status and caring and support among carers.
The weighted sample included 2962 people, of whom 374 (12.6%) were cancer carers and 1993 (67.3%) non-carers. Carers had significantly worse PCS/MCS, controlling for sociodemographic variables, but did not differ significantly regarding proportions with poor health status. Carer characteristics associated with poor PCS and MCS included socio-economic indicators and involvement in medication management. Assisting with household tasks was protective.
This population-based study followed those previous ones in finding cancer carers to have poorer mean health status than non-carers. However, differences were less pronounced than previously reported, likely because of the sample being drawn from a general rather than cancer service population and including past as well as current carers, as well as all cancer types and stages. Future longitudinal research is needed to identify factors that predict recovery post caring.
在基于人群的样本中比较癌症照顾者与非照顾者的身心健康状况，并探讨与照顾者健康状况不佳相关的社会人口学和照顾特征。
南澳大利亚健康综合调查是一项基于人群的横断面调查。照顾者的身份由参与者自行定义，即在过去 5 年内照顾过癌症患者。如果医疗结局研究 12 项简明健康调查问卷（SF-12）的身体和心理成分综合评分（PCS 和 MCS）的平均值比澳大利亚标准低 0.5 个标准差，则认为健康状况较差。回归分析比较了照顾者与非照顾者之间的平均 PCS/MCS，控制了社会人口学变量，并探讨了照顾者的健康状况不佳与照顾和支持之间的关联。
加权样本包括 2962 人，其中 374 人（12.6%）是癌症照顾者，1993 人（67.3%）是非照顾者。控制社会人口学变量后，照顾者的 PCS/MCS 明显较差，但在健康状况不佳的比例方面没有显著差异。与较差的 PCS 和 MCS 相关的照顾者特征包括社会经济指标和参与药物管理。协助处理家务是有保护作用的。
这项基于人群的研究与之前的研究结果一致，发现癌症照顾者的平均健康状况比非照顾者差。然而，差异并不像之前报道的那么明显，这可能是因为样本来自一般人群而不是癌症服务人群，包括过去和现在的照顾者，以及所有癌症类型和阶段。未来需要进行纵向研究，以确定预测照顾后恢复的因素。
