• J Geriatr Oncol · Jun 2021

    Poor patient health is associated with higher caregiver burden for older adults with advanced cancer.

    • Wagahta Semere, Andrew D Althouse, Ann-Marie Rosland, Douglas White, Robert Arnold, Edward Chu, Thomas J Smith, and Yael Schenker.
    • Division of General Internal Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA. Electronic address: wagahta.semere@ucsf.edu.
    • J Geriatr Oncol. 2021 Jun 1; 12 (5): 771-778.

    ObjectivesFamily caregiver burden among older adults with advanced cancer remains poorly understood. We sought to (1) identify patient factors associated with caregiver burden and (2) examine how amount of time caregiving modifies these relationships.MethodsCross-sectional analysis of baseline data from a cluster-randomized palliative care intervention trial including patients with advanced cancer and their family caregivers, recruited from 17 oncology practices in Pennsylvania. Caregiver burden was measured using Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI-12; range 0-48). Patient factors included functional status (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group), symptom burden (Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale), anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), and quality of life (Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy - Palliative Care). Using adjusted multivariable regression, we analyzed (1) independent associations between patient factors and caregiver burden and (2) how weekly caregiving hours modified these relationships.ResultsAmong 441 patient-caregiver dyads, mean patient age was 70 ± 10 and caregiver age was 62 ± 13 years. Most caregivers (59%) were patients' partners. Caregivers reported 44.5 ± 53.5 average hours spent caregiving weekly; mean ZBI-12 scores were 10.3 ± 7.3. Worse patient functional status (β = 4.20, p < 0.01), poorer quality of life (β = -0.07, p < 0.01), more anxiety (β = 0.33, p < 0.01) and depression (β = 0.33, p < 0.01) were associated with higher caregiver burden; caregiving hours did not affect these relationships.ConclusionsIn advanced cancer, poor patient physical and mental health is associated with higher caregiver burden regardless of hours caregiving; future studies should examine interventions tailored to alleviate caregiver burden for this group.Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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