This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Save to my personal folders Download to citation manager Rights & Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Fletcher, B. S. Articles by Miaskowski, C. A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Fletcher, B. S. Articles by Miaskowski, C. A. Social Bookmarking                            What's this?

Prevalence, Severity, and Impact of Symptoms on Female Family Caregivers of Patients at the Initiation of Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer

Barbara Swore Fletcher, Steven M. Paul, Marylin J. Dodd, Karen Schumacher, Claudia West, Bruce Cooper, Kathryn Lee, Bradley Aouizerat, Patrick Swift, William Wara, Christine A. Miaskowski

From the University of California, San Francisco; Alta Bates Comprehensive Cancer Center, Berkeley, CA; and the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE

Corresponding author: Christine A. Miaskowski, RN, PhD, FAAN, Department of Physiological Nursing, University of California, 2 Koret Way, Box 0610, San Francisco, CA 94143-0610; e-mail: chris.miaskowski{at}nursing.ucsf.edu

Purpose In a sample of family caregivers (FCs) of patients with prostate cancer who were to begin radiation therapy (RT), the purposes were to determine the prevalence and severity of depression, anxiety, pain, sleep disturbance, and fatigue; determine the relationships among these symptoms and between these symptoms and functional status and quality of life (QOL); evaluate for differences in functional status and QOL between FCs with low and high levels of these symptoms; and determine which factors predicted FCs’ functional status and QOL.

Patients and Methods FCs were recruited before patients initiated RT and completed self-report questionnaires that evaluated demographic characteristics, symptoms, functional status, and QOL.

Results Sixty female FCs participated in the study. On the basis of established cut point scores for each symptom questionnaire, 12.2% of the FCs had clinically meaningful levels of depression, 40.7% anxiety, 15.0% pain, 36.7% sleep disturbance, 33.3% morning fatigue, and 30.0% evening fatigue. FCs who were older and who had lower levels of state anxiety and higher levels of depression, morning fatigue, and pain reported significantly poorer functional status (R² = 38.7%). FCs who were younger, had more years of education, were working, and who had higher levels of depression, morning fatigue, sleep disturbance, and lower levels of evening fatigue reported significantly lower QOL scores (R² = 70.1%).

Conclusion A high percentage of FCs experienced clinically meaningful levels of a variety of symptoms. These symptoms have a negative impact on the FCs’ functional status and QOL.

Supported by Grant No. NR04835 from the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR); National Institutes of Health Roadmap for Medical Research Grant No. K12RR023262 (B.A.); and NINR T32 Grant No. NR07088 (B.S.F.); and unrestricted grants from Endo Pharmaceuticals LP, PriCara Unit of Ortho-McNeil Inc, and Purdue Pharma LP (C.A.M.).

Authors’ disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and author contributions are found at the end of this article.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B. E. Aouizerat, M. Dodd, K. Lee, C. West, S. M. Paul, B. A. Cooper, W. Wara, P. Swift, L. B. Dunn, and C. Miaskowski Preliminary Evidence of a Genetic Association Between Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha and the Severity of Sleep Disturbance and Morning Fatigue Biol Res Nurs, July 1, 2009; 11(1): 27 - 41. [Abstract] [PDF]

				N. Rohleder, T. J. Marin, R. Ma, and G. E. Miller Biologic Cost of Caring for a Cancer Patient: Dysregulation of Pro- and Anti-Inflammatory Signaling Pathways J. Clin. Oncol., June 20, 2009; 27(18): 2909 - 2915. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				Cancer Therapy Affects Caregivers Journal Watch Oncology and Hematology, February 19, 2008; 2008(219): 1 - 1. [Full Text]