Family caregivers of patients in palliative care assume the responsibilities of caring for the patient in many cases without any knowledge about aspects related to the disease. Assuming the care of the patient without knowledge leads to experiencing high levels of uncertainty in illness in the caregiver. Aim: To describe the level of uncertainty in illness of family caregivers of patients in palliative care and to explore what factors of the characteristics of the participants may be associated with the development of uncertainty.
Methods:
Correlational descriptive study with non-probabilistic sampling, carried out with 300 family caregivers of patients in palliative care hospitalized in a healthcare institution in Bogotá-Colombia. The sociodemographic characterization questionnaire of the patient-caregiver family dyad and the Uncertainty in illness scale of the family caregiver´s were used. Descriptive statistics were performed for sociodemographic variables and Spearman´s Rho correlation test was applied.
Results:
The participants had an average age of 50.17 and a level of uncertainty in illness was in average 91.7 points. The analyzes performed revealed significant direct correlations between the level of uncertainty and the degree of dependence of the patient (r = 0.187, p = 0.001), the evaluation of symptoms (r = 0.312, p < 0.001) and time as caregiver (r = 0.131, p = 0.023). On the other hand, a negative correlation was found between the level of uncertainty and the perception of support that the caregiver had with the healthcare professionals (r = -0.16, p = 0.048), family (r = - 0.145, p = 0.012). ) and religious support (r = -0.131, p = 0.050).
Conclusion:
The results suggest that the control of symptoms in the patient, the degree of functionality, professional, family and religious support are factors that can be taken into account to address the uncertainty in the disease presented by the family caregiver. The present investigation corroborated some of the theoretical postulates of the theory of uncertainty in illness and with these results it is suggested the realization of intervention studies for family caregivers.