Lung Cancer Caregivers' Needs and Related Factors in Taiwan

Friday, 26 July 2013: 10:55 AM

Yeur-Hur Lai, PhD
School of Nursing, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

Learning Objective 1: To identify caregivers' needs in caring for lung cancer patients.

Learning Objective 2: To identify factors related to caregivers' needs in caring for lung cancer patients.

Purposes: The purposes of this study aim to identify needs and related factors in primary caregivers of lung cancer patients.

Methods: A cross-sectional, correlational survey was conducted to recruited patient-caregiver dyads by consecutive sampling from a pulmonary outpatient clinic in a medical center in Taiwan. A set of questionnaires was used to assess patients’ factors potentially related to caregivers’ need, including performance status, symptom severity, anxiety and depression. Caregivers’ needs were assessed by the Supportive Care Need Survey- Partners & Caregivers 44 (SCNS-P&C 44) which included seven domains: information needs, health care professional/health care service needs,· daily needs, communication/ interpersonal needs, legal/financial needs, psychological needs and other needs. IRB approval was obtained before data collection. A total of one hundred patient-caregiver dyads were recruited.

Results: The results revealed that the top ten ranked need in caregivers were located in: (1) five items in the “health care professional/health care service needs” domain (37%~50%); two items in “psychological/emotional needs” domain (45%~58%), two items in “legal/financial needs” domain (43%~52%) and three items in “information needs” domain (40%~45%); and (2) Overall, patients’ factors related to caregivers’ needs were: patients without work, older age, lower performance status, higher anxiety, symptom severity. Caregivers’ factors were female cares, older age, unmarried and lower education.

Conclusion: The findings can help health care professional to provide appropriate care to meet lung cancer caregiver s’ needs. Future studies to intervene factors related to unmet care needs would be strongly suggested.