Abstract
Cancer diagnosis has detrimental effects on patients’ families since they have to take care of the patients, resulting in caregivers' burden. This study aimed to investigate the burden of family caregivers caring for cancer patients. A descriptive quantitative study was applied to 60 family caregivers of cancer patients in a government hospital in Yogyakarta. Data were gathered using sociodemographic and health-related instruments and Zarit Burden Interview, then analyzed by using descriptive statistics. The results showed all family caregivers expressed their feelings of the intensity of burden (60% little or no burden, 36.7% mild-to-moderate, 3.3% moderate-to-severe), and none of them expressed severe burden. The majority were patients' children, married males, over 40 years old, and small family members living in the same house in a rural area. They went to high school or university, working in private sector, with monthly family income were below a minimum standard. They spent 1-6 hours per day for caregiving without experience in caring. They also did not have any chronic diseases, whom the majority of patients they were taking care of had third stadium of breast cancer without metastasis with chemotherapy. To conclude, most caregivers experienced little or no burden in caring for their family members with cancer.
Highlights
INTRODUCTIONCancer becomes one of the biggest health issues in Indonesia since our country was the 8th most prevalent country with cancer in South East Asia counting 136.2/100 thousand people. [1] In 2020, the data has inclined to 345.9/100 thousand people were diagnosed with cancer. [2]
Cancer becomes one of the biggest health issues in Indonesia since our country was the 8th most prevalent country with cancer in South East Asia counting 136.2/100 thousand people. [1] In 2020, the data has inclined to 345.9/100 thousand people were diagnosed with cancer. [2]As cancer treatments become advanced, more cancer patients are cared in home and families become more involved in care
Studies revealed that family members of cancer patients have many unmet needs as consequences of caregiving which affect quality of life. [5,6] It is a result from the nature of caregiving which is demanding and overwhelming leading to a stressful moments for caregivers [7] and is perceived as a burden to caregivers
Summary
Cancer becomes one of the biggest health issues in Indonesia since our country was the 8th most prevalent country with cancer in South East Asia counting 136.2/100 thousand people. [1] In 2020, the data has inclined to 345.9/100 thousand people were diagnosed with cancer. [2]. As cancer treatments become advanced, more cancer patients are cared in home and families become more involved in care. Studies revealed that family members of cancer patients have many unmet needs as consequences of caregiving which affect quality of life. The study discloses a reciprocal relationship between the quality of life of the family caregiver and the patient. It is essential to explore the family caregiver burden in caring for the cancer patient. There have been very limited studies exploring burden on family caregivers of cancer patients in Indonesia, [4,10] and only applied on the family caregivers of advanced cancer patients [10] or using different assesment tools to assess the variable. [4] this current study aimed to assess the burden on family caregivers caring for cancer patients. The results may have practical importance to help designing nursing strategies for certain family caregivers with the risk of experiencing higher burden
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