Factors Related to Self-perceived Burden in Cancer Patients Who Require Physical Care Provided by Family Caregivers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the factors related to self-perceived burden (SPB) in cancer patients requiring physical care provided by family caregivers. We distributed a questionnaire consisting of the self-perceived burden scale to 310 cancer outpatients, of whom 210 returned complete responses. We used multiple regression analysis to evaluate the responses of the 74 patients with a performance status of 2 or above. Three factors were found to be significantly related to SPB and explained the variance of 28.0%: “years of suffering” (β=- 0.326, p =0.006), “acceptance of the disease by the family member(s)” (β= 0.303, p =0.010), and “desire to fight the disease” (β= - 0.285, p =0.015). These findings suggest the importance of evaluating SPB along with patients’ physical and mental states and considering support of both the caregivers and the patients receiving the care.