• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.301-311
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• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors related to the functioning of family caregivers of patients with cancer. Method: Data were collected by questionnaires from 124 patient-family caregiver dyads at a hospital in Seoul. Data collection was done between August, 2004 and January, 2005. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficients and stepwise multiple regression. Results: The mean score for family functioning was 68.73. Family functioning showed a significant negative correlation with burden of family caregiver and performance status of patients with cancer, and a significant positive correlation with previous relationship between the patient with cancer and caregiver. The most powerful predictor of family functioning was the relationship between the patient and caregiver. The relationship between the patient with cancer and caregiver, and performance status of the patient accounted for 25.4% of the variance of family functioning. Conclusion: The results showed that the relationship between patients with cancer and caregivers and performance status of patients with cancer were significant factors influencing family functioning in family caregiver of patients with cancer.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.384-395
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• 2000

This study examined burdens of primary family caregivers, and family functioning of patients with cancer. In addition, the relationship between two concepts was assessed to develop nursing intervention to reduce the burdens of caregiving, and to improve family functioning. Ninety-two primary family caregivers of patients with cancer at a general hospital in Seoul participated in this study. The patients with cancer aged from 19 to 84 years with a mean age of 51 years, and sixty-one percent were male. About 30 percent of the patients suffered liver and billiary tract cancer. Fifty-six percent of the primary family caregivers were spouses of the patients and 70.7 percent were women. Primary family caregivers' burdens were assessed by the Burden Scale originally developed by Zarit (1980) and Novak & Guest(1989) and modified by Jang (1995) for use in Korea. The instrument consists of six subscales: time-dependent burden, developmental burden, physical burden, emotional burden, social burden, and financial burden. Family functioning was assessed by the Family APGAR developed by Smilkstein(1978). The results were as follows: 1. The average burden score was 86.1, indicating a moderate level of burden. The time-dependent burden scored highest followed by developmental, physical, social, financial, and emotional burdens. The mean score of family APGAR was 9.71; among subjects 82.6% were included in dysfunctional families. 2. Of the characteristics of patients, age, gender, number of admissions, and job were found to be associated with the level of burden. There was no significant difference between patient characteristics and family functioning. Of the characteristics of primary family caregivers, caregiver's perception of patient prognosis was significantly related to the level of burden, and family functioning. Caregiver's sex and age were also related to family functioning. The quality of relationship between a patient and a caregiver was significant situational factors affecting the level of burden, and family functioning. In addition, the income of family, and help from other family members were related to the level of burden. Given the results, it is essential to develop nursing intervention to reduce burden and to improve family functioning, such as support groups.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.125-134
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• 2002

Purpose: The objectives for this study were to identify the factors that correlate with appraisal of illness and to explore what variables are predictive of cancer patients primary caregivers' cognitive appraisal for stress. Method: The subjects were selected by convenient sampling and 130 caregivers who completed a questionnaire. Measures used in this study included the Family Inventory of Resources for Management, Social Support Index, Family Crisis Oriented Personal Evaluation Scales and Family Coping Coherence Index. Pearson correlation was used to identify the relationship among factors and multiple regression was used to determine the individual and cumulative effect of potential predictors on the caregivers' appraisal. Results: Patient's level of activity, severity of the disease, quality of relation between patient and caregiver, caregiver's subjective health status, economic status, family resources and coping were significantly correlated. Among the variables, coping, family resources, economic status and quality of relation between caregiver and patient predicted 49.2 percent of the variance in appraisal of caregivers' stress condition. Conclusion: These findings suggest that coping mechanisms and family resources are important for positive appraisal. Nurses should provide adequate nursing care for the primary caregiver about professional care information and supportive counseling.

• Asian Oncology Nursing
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.5-16
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• 2002

Purpose: This study was to develop a stress-adaptation model for family caregivers of cancer patients that could provide the basis of planning nursing intervention. Method: A hypothetical model was developed using the family adaptation model proposed by Haley et al. (1987). In the literature, the stressor was identified as patient's characteristics, caregiver's characteristics, duration of illness, and family life events. It affected stress appraisal, family resources, family coping and finally caregiver's adaptation. In this model, 18 paths were constructed. Data were collected from 241 caregivers, whose family members were in treatment between June and August 2000, at 3 university hospitals and were analyzed by SPSS and LISREL programs. Results: 1) The overall fitness indices of the hypothetical model were x 2=267.78 (P= .0), GFI= .92, AGFI= .87, NFI= .93, NNFI= .93, PNFI= .64, PGFI= .55, and RMR= .43. Ten of the eighteen paths proved to be significant. 2) To improve the model fitness, the hypothetical model was modified considering modification indices and the paths proved not significant. Final model excluded 3 paths demonstrated to be improved by x2=161.96 (P= .00), GFI= .95, AGFI= .91, NFI= .96, NNFI= .96, and RMR= .23. Twelve of fifteen paths proved to be significant. 3) Stress appraisal was influenced by disease related characteristics and duration of illness and was explained 22% of the variance. Family resources were influenced by stress appraisal and was explained 57% of variance. Family coping was influenced by disease related characteristics, caregiver's characteristics, duration of illness, family life event, and stress appraisal and was explained 57% of variance. Family caregiver adaptation was influenced by disease related characteristics, caregiver's characteristics, stress appraisal, and family coping and was explained 31% of variance. Twelve of fifteen paths were significant. Conclusion: Based on this study, to help family caregivers to adapt, individual intervention is necessary with consideration of disease related and caregiver's characteristics and duration of illness. The intervention should include efforts to raise the family resources and to identify positively the stress they encounter, and there is a need to establish an adaptation model that considers emotional aspects of family caregivers. Since there is a difference in emotional status depending on the disease stage, a study needs to be done to analyze the differences among the disease stages (diagnosis, treatment, recurrence, and terminal stages).

• Asian Oncology Nursing
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.129-136
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was conducted to examine the relationship between stress and quality of life of family caregivers of patients with lung cancer. Methods: From April 18 to May 4, 2009, data were collected using self-report questionnaires with 95 family caregivers of lung cancer patients in G cancer center. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA and pearson's correlation coefficient with SPSS 14.0. Results: The mean score of the stress level was 27.5 (SD=14.77). The mean score of the QOL was 73.0 (SD=17.86). The stress level of family caregiver showed significant difference according to gender (psychological stress p=.011, total level of stress p=.042) and availableness of second caregiver (physical stress p=.023, psychological stress p=.035, total level of stress p=.001). The QOL of family caregivers showed significant difference according to daily caring (positive adaptation p=.045) and financial burden on treatment expense (positive adaptation p=.004, total quality of life p=.043). The negative correlation was found between stress and QOL of family caregivers (r=-.67, p=.032). Conclusion: These results indicate a need to develop nursing intervention programs for family caregivers to reduce stress and improve QOL.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.58-72
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to describe the perceived burden of the terminally III patients's caregiver and to analyze relationship between the perceived burden and the various demographics, illness characteristics, family relationships, and economic factor of the family & patients. The sample of 132 caregivers who care for the terminally III patients Kyung-Gi province, Seoul, Korea. The period of this study was from August to September, 2002. The perceived burden of the family caregiver was measured by the burden scale(20 items, 4 point scale) developed by Montgomery et al. (1985). The Data was analyzed using SAS-program by t-test and ANOVA. The results were as follows; 1. The mean of the family caregiver's burden score was 3.02. The score showed that caregivers perceive severe the level of burden. The hight items of the family caregiver's burden were' I feel it is painful to watch patient's diseases'(3.77). 'I feel afraid for what the future holds for my patients'(3.66), 'I feel it reduced to amount of privacy time'(3.64). 2. The caregiver's burden was significantly related to patient's gender(F=3.17, p= 0.0020), patient's job(F=2.49, p=0.0476), caregiver's age(F=4.29, p=0.0030), and caregiver's job(F=2.49, p=0.0476). 3. The caregiver's burden according to illness characteristics showed no significant difference. 4. The caregiver's burden was significantly associated with patient's family relationship (F=4.05, p=0.0041), patient's care mean period in a day(F=47.18,

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.4181-4185
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• 2014

Background: The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of male spouse caregivers of breast cancer patients in China, assess their quality of life (QOL), and investigate the influencing factors. Materials and Methods: A total of 243 breast cancer patient-spouse caregiver dyads were recruited from four hospitals in Shanxi and Anhui province of China. A cross-sectional design was applied to collect data and the Chinese version of the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short Form (SF-36) was used to measure caregivers' QOL, and the Chinese version of M.D. Anderson Symptom Inventory (MDASI-C) was applied to measure patient symptom severity and interference. Pearson's correlation was used to examine the correlations between caregiver burden and QOL. The multiple regression analysis was used to determine the most predictive factors influencing QOL. Results: The scores of all SF-36 scales were above 50.0, which were much lower than that of general mainland Chinese males. Mental QOL was significantly worse than physical QOL. Spouses demographic characteristics, caregiving-related variables and patient symptoms were related to spouse QOL. Caregiver burden has a negative relationship with QOL. Conclusions: A decrease in life events and patient symptoms, as well as increase in spouse sleeping time and family income, ought to improve QOL.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.163-172
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• 2019

Objectives: With the rapidly increasing incidence of cancer worldwide, it has become important for health care professionals to both provide care for cancer patients and to address the challenges faced by family caregivers of cancer patients. This study aims to identify the factors affecting depression among cancer patients' family caregivers. The results of this study suggest the need to propose programs for family caregivers as well as cancer patients. Methods: Participants were 219 caregivers who were informed of the study purpose and agreed to participate. Data were analyzed using t-tests, one-way ANOVA, Scheffe's test, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple stepwise regression with the SPSS/WIN 25.0 program. Results: The mean score for depression among cancer patients' family caregivers was $1.57{\pm}.40$ (range: 0-3). Depression was significantly different based on age, relationship with the patient, education, occupation, cancer recurrence, care days per week, financial burden, site of cancer, and health status. Analysis using multiple regression showed that model 1 showed 16% of the factors predicting depression among cancer patients' family caregivers (F=6.16, p<.001) including occupation, recurrence, and health status of the caregiver. Model 3, which included additional burnout, showed 37% of the factors predicting depression (F=12.36, p<.001). Conclusions: These results suggest that it is necessary to develop programs for prevention and management of depression among cancer patients' family caregivers.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.209-215
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• 2013

Objectives: Terminal cancer patients and their caregivers often experience traumatic stress and need many types of assistance. In the present study we interviewed terminally ill cancer patients and caregivers to determine how much burden they experienced and to find out what factors are most important for satisfaction. Design: We constructed a questionnaire including overall care burden and needs experienced, and administered it to 659 terminal cancer patients and 659 important caregivers at 11 university hospitals and 1 national cancer center in Korea. Results: Finally, 481 terminal cancer patients and 381 caregivers completed the questionnaire. Care burden was not insubstantial in both and the caregiver group felt more burden than the patient group (P<0.001). While the patient group needed financial support most (39.0%), the caregiver group placed greatest emphasis on discussion about further treatment plans (44.8%). Stepwise multiple logistic regression analyses showed that in the patient group, patient's health status (OR, 2.03; 95%CI, 1.16-3.56) and burden (OR, 2.82; 95%CI, 1.76-4.50) influenced satisfaction about overall care, while in the caregiver group, high education level (OR, 1.84; 95%CI, 1.76-4.50), burden (OR, 2.94; 95%CI, 1.75-4.93) and good family function (OR, 1.94; 95%CI, 1.24-3.04) were important. Conclusions: Our study showed that burden was great in both terminal cancer patients and their caregivers and was perceived to be more severe by caregivers. Our study also showed that burden was the factor most predicting satisfaction about overall care in both groups.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.395-404
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• 2006

Purpose: This study investigated the effect of a structured group intervention on knowledge about lung cancer, self efficacy and quality of life for family caregivers of patients with lung cancer using a nonequivalent control groupquasi-experimental design. Methods: Subjects were 11 family caregivers for both the control and the experimental group. The experimental group participated in once a week for 2-hour session for 4 weeks. Four topics of educational program were lung cancer and treatment, side effects of treatments, symptoms management, and health management. Every session consisted of lecture, sharing experiences, and meditating time. Quality of life was measured using Jang(1996)'s tool. The tools for knowledge and self-efficacy were developed by the authors. Results: After the intervention, the experimental group showed higher self-efficacy in caring for the patients than did the controls. However, there were no significant differences in knowledge about lung cancer and quality of life between the two groups. Conclusion: Findings indicate that the group intervention would be effective for family caregivers of lung cancer patients.