Puerta Blanca Clinical Management Unit, Malaga-Guadalhorce Health District, Malaga, Spain.
MOVE-IT Research Group and Department of Physical Education, Faculty of Education Sciences, University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain.
BMC Palliat Care. 2022 Feb 28;21(1):27. doi: 10.1186/s12904-022-00918-3.
This study anlyzed whether family caregivers of patients with advanced cancer suffer impaired sleep quality, increased strain, reduced quality of life or increased care burden due to the presence and heightened intensity of symptoms in the person being cared for.
A total of 41 patient-caregiver dyads (41 caregivers and 41 patients with advanced cancer) were recruited at six primary care centres in this cross-sectional study. Data were obtained over a seven-month period. Caregiver's quality of sleep (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), caregiver's quality of life (Quality of Life Family Version), caregiver strain (Caregiver Strain Index), patients' symptoms and their intensity (Edmonton Symptom Assessment System), and sociodemographic, clinical and care-related data variables were assessed. The associations were determined using non-parametric Spearman correlation.
Total Edmonton Symptom Assessment System was significantly related to overall score of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (r = 0.365, p = 0.028), the Caregiver Strain Index (r = 0.45, p = 0.005) and total Quality of Life Family Version (r = 0.432, p = 0.009), but not to the duration of daily care (r = -0.152, p = 0.377).
Family caregivers for patients with advanced cancer suffer negative consequences from the presence and intensity of these patients' symptoms. Therefore, optimising the control of symptoms would benefit not only the patients but also their caregivers. Thus, interventions should be designed to improve the outcomes of patient-caregiver dyads in such cases.
本研究分析了晚期癌症患者的家庭照顾者是否因照顾者所照顾的人的症状的存在和加剧而导致睡眠质量受损、压力增加、生活质量下降或照顾负担增加。
本横断面研究在六个初级保健中心共招募了 41 对患者-照顾者（41 名照顾者和 41 名晚期癌症患者）。数据在七个月内获得。照顾者的睡眠质量（匹兹堡睡眠质量指数）、照顾者的生活质量（家庭版生活质量）、照顾者的压力（照顾者压力指数）、患者的症状及其强度（埃德蒙顿症状评估系统）以及社会人口学、临床和护理相关数据变量进行了评估。使用非参数 Spearman 相关分析确定关联。
总的埃德蒙顿症状评估系统与匹兹堡睡眠质量指数的总分（r=0.365，p=0.028）、照顾者压力指数（r=0.45，p=0.005）和家庭版生活质量的总分（r=0.432，p=0.009）显著相关，但与每日护理时间（r=-0.152，p=0.377）无关。
晚期癌症患者的家庭照顾者因这些患者症状的存在和强度而遭受负面影响。因此，优化症状控制不仅将使患者受益，也将使他们的照顾者受益。因此，应设计干预措施来改善这种情况下患者-照顾者对的结果。
