Abstract
9580 Background: This study was aimed to investigate the employment status and work-related difficulties among family caregiver of terminal cancer patients compared with the general population. Methods: A survey was administered to 381 family caregivers of terminal cancer patients at 11hospitals and 994 general populations aged more than 18 years. Results: Family caregivers of terminal cancer patients were female (66.7%) and the patient's spouse (50.9%), with mean age of 46.8years (SD, 13.5). 212(56.1%) were working before cancer diagnosis, however, only 133(36.3%) continued working currently. Compared with the general population, 233(63.7%)family caregivers of terminal cancer patients were more likely to be not working (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] =2.39; 95% confidence interval [95%CI] = 1.73 to 3.29).Those who continued working reported more easy fatigability (40.6% vs 22.4%) and reduced working hours (20.3% vs 2.1%) than general population. For those doing housework, caregiving itself (56.4%) were identified to be the most common difficulties, followed by easy fatigability (32.3%). Major reasons for not working were providing care to the terminal cancer patients (24.0%). Older age (aOR=10.37; 95%CI=2.80 to 38.41), female sex (aOR=4.28; 95%CI=2.25 to 8.13), lower household income (aOR=2.19; 95%CI=1.19 to 4.06), bearing medical cost by other than spouse (aOR=2.10; 95%CI=1.05 to 4.19), and low performance status of the patients (aOR=2.00; 95%CI=1.01 to 3.95) were significantly associated with not working. Conclusions: When compared to the general population, family caregivers of terminal cancer patients were at risk job loss from their caregiving burden, and caregiving and easy fatigability were the major work-related difficulties. Our study might help make a strategy to reduce job loss for family caregivers' caregiving burden. No significant financial relationships to disclose.
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