Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway.
St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital, 4. etg. Kunnskapssenteret vest, St. Olavs Hospital, 7006, Trondheim, Norway.
Support Care Cancer. 2021 Sep;29(9):5329-5339. doi: 10.1007/s00520-021-06080-5. Epub 2021 Mar 4.
Caring affects carers' psychological and physical health, mortality, and quality of life (QoL) negatively. Lower spiritual QoL is associated with anxiety and depression, but the spiritual dimension is rarely investigated in carers. The present study aimed to explore which patient- and carer-related characteristics were associated with spiritual QoL in carers of patients with advanced cancer.
Secondary analyses were conducted using data from a prospective study investigating integration between oncology and palliative care. Adult patients with advanced cancer and their carers were included, and baseline data considering demographics, clinical characteristics, symptoms, social support, and religious meaning-making were registered. Spiritual QoL was measured using the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy - Spiritual well-being (FACIT-Sp-12) questionnaire. Associations to spiritual QoL were explored by bivariate and multivariate regression models.
In total, 84 carers were included, median age was 62.5 years, 52 (62%) were female, and the average spiritual QoL score was 23.3. In bivariate analyses, higher education, social support, and lower patients' symptom burden were significantly associated with higher spiritual QoL. The multivariate regression model (n=77) had an explained variance (R) = 0.34 and showed a significant association for social support, higher education, having children < 18 years living at home, and patient's age.
The study indicates that spiritual QoL in carers were low and were negatively affected by several factors related to both carers and patients. However, there could be other important factors not yet described. Health care professionals should be aware of the known associated factors, as carers who hold these may need extra support.
关怀会对照顾者的心理和身体健康、死亡率和生活质量（QoL）产生负面影响。较低的精神 QoL 与焦虑和抑郁有关，但在照顾者中很少研究精神维度。本研究旨在探讨哪些患者和照顾者相关特征与晚期癌症患者照顾者的精神 QoL 相关。
使用一项前瞻性研究的数据分析进行二次分析，该研究调查了肿瘤学和姑息治疗的整合。纳入成年晚期癌症患者及其照顾者，并记录考虑人口统计学、临床特征、症状、社会支持和宗教意义的基线数据。使用慢性病治疗功能评估-精神健康（FACIT-Sp-12）问卷测量精神 QoL。通过单变量和多变量回归模型探讨与精神 QoL 的关联。
共纳入 84 名照顾者，中位年龄为 62.5 岁，52 名（62%）为女性，平均精神 QoL 得分为 23.3。在单变量分析中，较高的教育程度、社会支持和较低的患者症状负担与较高的精神 QoL 显著相关。多变量回归模型（n=77）的解释方差（R）为 0.34，显示社会支持、较高的教育程度、有 18 岁以下子女且居住在家、以及患者年龄与精神 QoL 呈显著相关。
该研究表明，照顾者的精神 QoL 较低，受到与照顾者和患者相关的多个因素的负面影响。然而，可能还有其他尚未描述的重要因素。医疗保健专业人员应意识到已知的相关因素，因为具有这些因素的照顾者可能需要额外的支持。
