Abstract
BackgroundThe leukemia affects not only the quality of life (QOL) of patients with the disease but also that of their family caregivers (FCs). The research studies on QOL of FCs for leukemia patients are limited. This study aimed to evaluate the QOL of FCs for leukemia patients in Heilongjiang province, China.MethodsA cross-sectional questionnaire survey was undertaken with 309 FCs for leukemia patients recruited from three hospitals in Heilongjiang province. The QOL of the participants was assessed using the Chinese version of WHOQOL-BREF. Multivariate regression models were established to determine the predictors of the QOL of FCs, including the socio-economic characteristics of patients and FCs, and the emotional distress, social support and family functions of FCs.ResultsThe FCs had low QOL scores in all four domains: 12.7 ± 2.8 for physical, 12.2 ± 2.5 for psychological, 13.2 ± 2.9 for social and 11.3 ± 2.5 for environment. Social support is a major predictor of the QOL of FCs, with a standardized β coefficient of “high support” ranging from 0.41 to 0.58 for the four domains, followed by family function (β = 0.37 ~ 0.44 for psychological, social and environmental domains). The FCs who were older, highly educated, had no religious belief, suffered from a higher level of emotional distress, and provided care to younger patients and the patients without insurance coverage had lower QOL than the others.ConclusionThe study provides some important insights into the QOL of FCs for leukemia patients. The QOL of FCs for leukemia patients is low and low levels of support to FCs are a major predictor of low QOL of FCs.
Highlights
The leukemia affects the quality of life (QOL) of patients with the disease and that of their family caregivers (FCs)
The patients had a mean age of 35 years, with 24.6% being younger than 15 years
Psychological and emotional support may play a limited role for improving the QOL of FCs emotional distress has been widely used for interpreting the low QOL of FCs for cancer patients [17, 64], this study demonstrates that it predicts some but not all of the QOL domains
Summary
The leukemia affects the quality of life (QOL) of patients with the disease and that of their family caregivers (FCs). Previous studies found that FCs of cancer patients often experience a high level of anxiety, depression, fatigue, hopelessness, fear, guilty, regret, sleep problems, and social isolation [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11], some of which may FCs play a major role in how well a patient can manage his or her illness. They are often the primary source of social and emotional support for the patient [1]. The stress of FCs for patients with cancer leads to deteriorated physical health, immune function, and financial well-being, as well as psychological problems and sleep disturbances [12]
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