Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Sjahss 31B144 152
Sjahss 31B144 152
2015; 3(1B):144-152
Scholars Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences ISSN 2347-5374 (Online)
Sch. J. Arts Humanit. Soc. Sci. 2015; 3(1B):144-152 ISSN 2347-9493 (Print)
©Scholars Academic and Scientific Publishers (SAS Publishers)
(An International Publisher for Academic and Scientific Resources)
*Corresponding Author:
Ananya Mondal.
Email: mailtoananya87@gmail.com
Abstract: Caregiving is a complex task that may affect physical as well as mental health. Without proper supervision and
skills, caregiving may become burden for some for the healthcare systems. The current paper made an attempt to
uncover the respective roles of different cancers and stages variation of cancers on the mental health of the caregivers in
terms of psychological distress (burden and burnout) and the coping strategies (to deal with their distress). In this study,
primary informal caregivers of cancer patients were selected. Burden assessment schedule, burn out inventory and
Coping checklist II had been selected to assess their psychological distress andcoping styles. Comparison among the
groups of caregivers reveal that in terms of burden and burnout there are significant variations among caregivers of stage
wise different cancers. In case of coping strategies caregivers show significant stage wise difference on emotion focused
coping strategies (distraction positive, acceptance, and denial) and problem focused coping strategies. Our findings may
be helpful to improve the public health policy about family caregivers.
Keywords: Informal cancer caregiver, psychological distress, coping style.
recognized as a significant stressor and the intricacies relationship is not clear [29, 30]. However, many
and difficulties of cancer treatment are additionally researcher, found that lesser the burden healthier will be
dreadful. When family members faced these challenges, the coping strategies such as problem-focused coping
most of them have a tendency to view the caregiving strategies[40-41].
role as a liability. Because, for cancer patients informal
caregiving is a vital part of managing patients and According to Mehrotra, family caregivers have
providing care which results extensive burden for the received very little attention in the published literature
caregiver [12]. from India[31]. Most of research on psychological
distress of family caregiver has been conducted in the
Growing researches has supported the fact that Western countries and did not adequately cover
cancer distresses not only the patients but also their population from other culture. Therefore, in this study,
caregivers. Patients diagnosed with breast cancer, we aimed to describe psychological distress and coping
cervical cancer and colorectal cancer fail to exert strategies of informal caregivers of West Bengal.
adequate control over their daily livings. It then Keeping all these in mind, the present study is an
becomes the responsibilities of their caregivers to attempt to uncover the respective roles of different
ensure their physical and psychological wellbeing and cancers and stages variation of cancers on the mental
needless to say this is not an easy task.Thus, care giving health of the care givers in terms of psychological
can exert a heavy toll on those who provide care distress (burden and burnout) and the coping strategies
[13,14]. they used to deal with their distress. In case we are able
to find out their level of distress and coping strategies,
Apart from stress and burden being common that knowledge will impart great significance in the
hallmarks of care giving, previous research findings therapeutic interventions and counseling for caregivers.
reported the prevalence of anxiety and depression in
informal caregivers [15, 16, 17]. Majority of the OBJECTIVES
literatures’ have reported that caregivers’ experiences The specific objectives were:
psychological and emotional distress [18, 19]; physical 1. Whether there is any stage wise difference among
illness [18, 20,21]; disruption of social and sexual the caregivers of cancer patients (stage II, III, IV)
relationships[22]. These manifold dimensions of in terms of psychological distress (burden and burn
distress results from an incongruity between care out) and coping strategies.
demands and the accessibility of resources to deal with 2. Whether there is any difference among the
those. Caregivers’ invidualistic reactions to these caregivers of different cancer patients (breast
multiple dimensions of demands are often ascribed as cancer, cervical cancer, and colorectal cancer) in
“burden”. The increased responsibility knowing the fact terms of psychological distress (burden and burn
of “no cure can be expected” (as often happens in late- out) and coping strategies.
stage cancer) often may lead to negative consequences 3. Whether different types of cancer and stages of
on caregivers’ mental health. [23, 24]. Even caregivers’ cancer, both combinely exert any effect on
observation of the patient’s suffering also contributes to caregivers’ psychological distress and coping
their depression and burden [25]. strategies.
3. The caregivers who are willing to participate in the 3= very much so). The higher the score on this scale
study and had given written consent for greater will be the burden level of the caregiver.
participation in this study.
4. The caregivers aged between 20-65 years were Burn out inventory:
included. The burnout inventory [33] used in the present
5. The caregivers those who could easily understand study ( to assess the extent of burnout in the caregivers
English and /or Bengali languages were included in of the patient) has been adapted from the
the study. Freudenberger burn out scale [34]. This inventory is not
meant to replace clinical assessment but to help one
Exclusion Criteria assess how one is doing. If one’s score is high he/she
None of the subjects had chosen for the study may need to seek help.
those who had any clinical evidences of psychiatric or
other major physical illness. It assesses the level of burn out of the
individual on the basis of how one has felt during the
Ethical Considerations: last three months. The inventory comprise of 15 items
Informed written consent had been collected and rated on a 6point (0 to 5, 0 = no change and 5 =
from each of the informal primary cancer caregivers. most change) scale. The inventory is computer scored.
The purpose of the research was explained to the
caregivers and was assured of confidentiality and of Coping checklist II:
their right to withdraw from the study at any stage. This scale was developed by Rao,
Subbakrishna and Prabhu [35]. The checklist cover
Tools: behavior pertaining to three domains for coping, i.e.
An information schedule: emotion focused problem solving and social support.
It is prepared for the purpose of collecting The checklist was developed keeping in mind the Indian
personal information. The information collected from socio-cultural set up. This scale is comprehensive as
the caregivers are as follows: Name, Age, Sex, well as user friendly.
Relationship with the patient, Patient diagnosed with
breast cancer, colorectal cancer or cervical cancer, The scale is comprised of 70 items describing
Stage of patients’ diagnosed cancer, Length of a broad range of behavioral, cognitive and emotional
caregiving, Whether have you any psychiatric or major responses that may be used to handle stress. The items
physical illness. were scored dichotomously on “yes or no” response,
suggesting the presence or absence of a particular
Burden assessment schedule: coping behavior. The more the number of “yes”
This instrument was developed by Thara et al., response to items, the greater the coping repertoire. The
[32]. It was designed to measure the subjective and score on each of the subscales: Problem Focused,
objective burden of caregivers of chronic mental ill Emotion Focused (Distraction Positive, Distraction
(e.g.: schizophrenia) persons. Since there is no item Negative, Acceptance/Redefinition, Religion Or Faith,
specification for schizophrenic patients’ caregiver or Denial/Blame) And Social Support; was considered to
that of any other mental illness and cancer is also determine the extent to which the care givers rely on
considered as chronic illness, this instrument has been each of the coping behavior.
used to assess the burden of cancer patients’ caregivers.
DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH
This instrument is comprised of 40 items and
rated on 3 point scale (1= not at all, 2= to some extent,
Table 1: Skewness and kurtosis measures of the dependent variable distribution (psychological distress and
coping strategies) for each category of independent variables (caregivers of different types of cancer patients and
of cancer patients with stage II, III, IV) are as follows.
Breast Cancer Cervical Cancer Colorectal Cancer
Skewness Kurtosis Skewness Kurtosis Skewness Kurtosis
Standard error Standard Standard error Standard Standard Standard
(.580) error (1.121) (.580) error (1.121) error (.580) error (1.121)
Burnout .278 .326 -.118 -.443 -.420 .110
Burden .747 -.841 .671 -1.161 .445 -1.013
Distraction
-.931 -.155 -.127 -1.032 -.078 -.714
positive
Distraction
.128 -1.348 .274 -1.499 -.227 -.970
negative
Acceptance -.100 -1.070 .412 -.010 -.080 -1.102
Religious .113 -.484 .276 -.646 .341 -.330
Denial -.168 -.033 -.282 -.917 -.276 -.646
Social support .000 -1.615 .601 -1.494 .000 -1.615
Problem focused -.587 -.723 -.127 -.988 .117 -1.026
From the above table of skewness and kurtosis is approximately normal; so parametric test has been
measures, it was found that the dependent variable done.
distribution for each category of independent variables
Table 2: Mean and Standard deviation of the groups on psychological distress and coping strategies.
Breast cancer Cervical cancer Colorectal cancer
Standard Standard Standard
Mean Mean Mean
deviation deviation deviation
Burnout 42.0667 1.33452 42.2000 1.14642 42.9333 1.38701
Burden 45.4000 5.81623 46.4000 6.23126 47.8000 3.91335
Distraction
11.0667 1.62422 10.9333 1.22280 10.5333 1.40746
positive
Distraction
4.9333 .79881 4.8667 .83381 5.1333 .74322
negative
Acceptance 6.5333 1.06010 6.6667 1.11270 6.6667 1.04654
Religious 5.4667 .91548 5.3333 .97590 5.4000 .91026
Denial 5.6667 .81650 5.7333 1.03280 5.6667 .97590
Social support 5.0000 .84515 4.7333 .88372 5.0000 .84515
Problem focused 7.6000 1.88225 7.4667 1.55226 7.6000 1.54919
Stage IV
Stage II Stage III
Standard Standard Standard
Mean Mean Mean
deviation deviation deviation
Burnout 41.6667 1.34519 42.6000 1.18322 42.9333 1.16292
Burden 41.8667 2.26358 44.6000 2.44365 53.1333 2.44560
Distraction
11.7333 .96115 11.0667 1.16292 9.7333 1.33452
positive
Distraction
4.9333 .79881 5.0000 .84515 5.0000 .75593
negative
Acceptance 5.9333 .79881 6.6000 .98561 7.3333 .89974
Religious 5.0667 .79881 5.6667 .97590 5.4667 .91548
Denial 6.2667 .70373 5.8000 .77460 5.0000 .84515
Social support 4.7333 .79881 5.0000 .92582 5.0000 .84515
Problem focused 9.1333 .74322 7.6000 1.05560 5.9333 1.09978
Table 3: The results of Univariate Two-way Analysis of Variance, effect size(Partial Eta Squared) and Post hoc
analyses, for each dependent variable distribution (psychological distress and coping strategies) in terms of
independent variables (that is, caregivers of different types of cancer patients and of cancer patients with stage II,
III, IV) are as follows: Psychological distress (Burnout and Burden):
F Ratio F Ratio
(Partial Eta Squared) (Partial Eta Squared)
STAGES variation 4.217* 133.983**
[.190] [.882]
CANCER variation 2.130 5.638**
[.106] [.239]
INTERACTION EFFECT .348 3.638*
[stage variation*cancer variation] [.037] [.288]
* p< 0.05 ** p < 0.01
Coping strategies:
SOCIA-
ACCEP- RELIGI-
DISTRACT- DISTRACT- L
TENCE OUS DENIAL PROBLEM
ION ION SUPPO-
FOCUSED
POSITIVE NEGETIVE RT
F Ratio
VARIABLES
F Ratio F Ratio (Partial F Ratio
F Ratio F Ratio F Ratio
(Partial (Partial Eta (Partial Eta
(Partial Eta (Partial Eta (Partial
Eta Eta Squared) Squared)
Squared) Squared) Eta
Squared) Squared)
Squared)
STAGES 12.727** .032 8.487** 1.595 9.390** 36.400** .444
variation [.414] [.002] [.320] [.081] [.343] [.669] [.024]
CANCER .945 .413 .103 .076 .034 .084 .444
variation [.050] [.022] [.006] [.004] [.002] [.005] [.024]
INTERACTIO 2.145 .413 .718 .646 .644 .495 .444
N EFFECT [.192] [.044] [.074] [.067] [.067] [.052] [.047]
* p< 0.05 ** p < 0.01
Post-hoc analysis:
Dependent variable Difference Mean difference
Burnout Stage IV- stage II 1.2667*
Stage IV – Stage II 11.2667**
Burden Stage III – Stage II 2.7333**
Stage IV – Stage III 8.5333**
Burden Colorectal cancer- breast cancer. 2.4000**
Stage IV – Stage II -2.000**
Distraction Positive
Stage IV – Stage III -1.333**
Acceptance Stage IV – Stage II 1.4000**
Stage IV – Stage II -1.2667**
Denial
Stage IV – Stage III -8.000*
Stage IV – Stage II -3.2000**
Problem focused Stage III – Stage II -1.5333**
Stage IV – Stage III -1.6667**
* p< 0.05 ** p < 0.01
and Trauma, 2008;13:205–221. 20. King AC, Oka RK, Young DR; Ambulatory blood
5. Bethesda MD; National Alliance for Caregiving (in pressure and heart rate responses to the stress of
collaboration with AARP). Caregiving in the U.S. work and caregiving in older women. Journals of
(Executive Summary), 2009. Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and
6. Perrig-Chiello P, Hutchison S; Family caregivers of Medical Sciences,1994; 49 (6):M239–M245
elderly persons; A differential perspective on 21. Shaw WS, Patterson TL, Ziegler MG, Dimsdale JE,
stressors, resources, and well-being. GeroPsych, Semple SJ, Grant I; Accelerated risk of
2010; 23(4):195–206. hypertensive blood pressure recordings among
7. Cosper PR, Moyer CL; Physical and Emotional Alzheimer caregivers. Journal of Psychosomatic
Impacts of the Caregiving Experience. Journal of Research, 1999; 46: 215–227
student research, 2013; 2(1):36-42. 22. Bigatti SM, Brown LF, Steiner JL, Miller KD;
8. Fact Sheets by Population – GLOBOCAN, 2012: Breast cancer in a wife: how husbands cope and
Estimated Cancer Incidence, Mortality, and how well it works. Cancer Nurs, 2011; 34(3):193-
Prevalence worldwide in 2012. 201.
[http://globocan.iarc.fr/Pages/fact_sheets_populatio 23. Given CW, Stommel M, Given B, Osuch J, Kurtz
n.aspx.] ME, Kurtz JC; The influence of cancer patients’
9. Wilson K, Pateman B, Beaver K, Luker KA; symptoms and functional states on patients’
Patient and carer needs following a cancer-related depression and family caregivers’ reaction and
hospital admission: the importance of refer- ral to depression. Health Psychol, 1993; 12: 277 – 285.
the District Nursing Service. J AdvNurs, 2002; 24. Hebert RS, Schulz R, Copeland VC, Arnold RM;
38:245 – 253. Preparing family caregivers for death and
10. Ahrens J, Nadash P; Informal caregivers: who are bereavement: insights from caregivers of terminally
they and how do they differ? Caring, 2003; 22:46 – ill patients, Journal of Pain Symptom
47. ManagemenT, 2009; 37(1):3–12.
11. Strang V, Koop PM; Factors which influence 25. Schulz R, McGinnis KA, Zhang S, Martire LM,
coping: Home-based family caregiving of persons Hebert RS, Beach SR, Zdaniuk B, Czaja SJ, Belle
with advanced cancer. Journal of Palliative Care, SH; Dementia patient suffering and caregiver
2003; 19(2):107-114. depression. Alzheimer Disease & Associated
12. Hassett MJ; The Full Burden of Cancer, The Disorders. 2008; 22(2):170-176.
Oncologist, 2010; 15(8): 793–795. 26. Halbesleben JRB, Buckley MR; Burnout in
13. Cotrim H, Pereira G; Impact of colorectal cancer Organizational LifE, Journal of Management,
on patient and family: Implications for care. 2004; 30(6):859–879.
European Journal of Oncology Nursing, 2008; 27. Heart Disease Health Center;
12(3):217–226. http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/heart-
14. Tang ST, Li CY, Chen CC; Trajectory and disease-recognizing-caregiver-burnout
determinantsof the quality of life of family 28. Ingledew DK, Hardy L, Cooper CL; Do resources
caregivers of terminallyill cancer patients in bolster coping and does coping buffer stress? An
Taiwan. Qual Life Res, 2008; 17(3):387-95. organizational study with longitudinal aspect and
15. Grov EK, Dahl AA, Moum T, Fosså SD; Anxiety, control for negative affectivity, J Occup Health
depression, and quality of life in caregivers of Psychol, 1997; 2(2):118-133.
patients with cancer in late palliative phase. Ann 29. Fadden G, Bebbington P, Kupiers L; Caring and its
Oncol, 2005; 16:1185-1191. burden. A study of the spouses of depressed
16. Oechsle K, Goerth K, Bokemeyer C, Mehnert A; patients. British Journal of Psychiatry,
Anxiety and depression in caregivers of terminally 1987;151:660-667.
ill cancer patients: impact on their perspective of 30. Ostman M, Hansson L; The relationship between
the patients' symptom burden. J Palliat Med, 2013; coping strategies and family burden among
16(9):1095-101. relatives of admitted psychiatric patients. Scand
17. Lee YH, Liao YC, Liao WY, Shun SC, Liu YC, Journal Caring Sci, 2001; 15(2):159-64.
Chan JC, Yu CJ, Yang PC, Lai YH; Anxiety, 31. Mehrotra S; Psycho-oncology research in India:
depression and related factors in family caregivers Current status and future directions. J Indian
of newly diagnosed lung cancer patients before first AcadAppl Psychol. 2008; 34: 7–18.
treatment. Psychooncology, 2013; 22(11):2617-23. 32. Thara R, Padmavathi R, Kumar S, Srinivasan L;
18. Kim Y, Spillers RL; Quality of life of family Burden Assessment schedule: Instrument to assess
caregivers at 2 years after a relative's cancer burden on caregivers of chronic mentally ill. Indian
diagnosis. Psychooncology. 2009; 19:431–440. Journal of Psychiatry, 1998; 40: 21-29.
19. Papastavrou E, Charalambus A, Tsangari H; 33. Burnout Test;
Exploring the other side of cancer care: the http://www.lessons4living.com/burnout_test.htm
informal caregiver. Eur J Oncol Nurs, 2009; 34. Freudenberger HJ; Staff burnout, Journal of
13:128–136. Social Issues, 1974; 30: 159–165.