• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.61-69
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• 2016

Purpose: It is important to alleviate care burden for terminal cancer patients and their families. This study investigated the factors associated with care burden among family caregivers (FCs) of terminally ill cancer patients. Methods: We analyzed data from 289 FCs of terminal cancer patients who were admitted to palliative care units of seven medical centers in Korea. Care burden was assessed using the Korean version of Caregiver Reaction Assessment (CRA) scale which comprises five domains. A multivariate logistic regression model with stepwise variable selection was used to identify factors associated with care burden. Results: Diverse associating factors were identified in each CRA domain. Emotional factors had broad influence on care burden. FCs with emotional distress were more likely to experience changes to their daily routine (adjusted odds ratio (aOR), 2.54; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.29~5.02), lack of family support (aOR, 2.27; 95% CI, 1.04~4.97) and health issues (aOR, 5.44; 2.50~11.88). Family functionality clearly reflected a lack of support, and severe family dysfunction was linked to financial issues as well. FCs without religion or comorbid conditions felt more burdened. The caregiving duration and daily caregiving hours significantly predicted FCs' lifestyle changes and physical burden. FCs who were employed, had weak social support or could not visit frequently, had a low self-esteem. Conclusion: This study indicates that it is helpful to understand FCs' emotional status and family functions to assess their care burden. Thus, efforts are needed to lessen their financial burden through social support systems.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.77-96
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• 1996

The purposes of this study were to understand caregiving situation and to develop education program for families with the demented elderly,. Family caregivers of elderly patients with dementia clearly experience high levels of stress which often leads to such negative caregiver outcomes as depression interference with social activities and health difficulties. That is providing care is stressful for caregivers because the demands of the caregiving situation threaten to overwhelm the caregivers' coping resources. Therfore the families with demented elderly persons need assistances in order to alleviated burden of caregiving, In this study the educational program was designed to increase caregivers' confidence in problem-solving, And it was designed to provided information to demented elderly. The educational program of this study was given 5 session. And it was included the understanding of dementia the family caregiving experiences of the demented elderly persons the time for elf-care the search for helping the improving of interpersonal relations and communications.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.249-259
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• 2005

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand the coping process that family caregivers experience during the process of care, to grasp coping behaviors used to solve problems and, finally, to develop a substantive theory by analyzing the coping process. Method: The methodology of collecting and analyzing data used in this study followed the ground theory of Strauss and Corbin(1998). Data were collected through in-depth interviews with open-ended and descriptive questions about the subjects' coping experiences, which were audio-taped and transcribed. The survey was conducted between February 2000 and February 2001. The subjects of this study were 17 women. Result: The result of the study is as follows. The coping process of family caregivers while taking care of the demented elderly was found to have six stages: problem recognition: undertaking care: struggling: mental control: burden mediation; and acceptance. These stages proceed with reciprocal action and in cycle. Conclusion: The result of this study is helpful for developing effective and individual nursing strategies suitable for each coping stage. It is necessary to develop an assessment tool that can judge caregivers' coping stage based on the result of this study. Moreover, we need continuous study to practice nursing mediation and to analyze the change about nursing effect and family members' adaptation.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.766-779
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• 1999

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the burden on families who live with an elderly person suffering from senile dementia, and the degree of their depression. There were 400 participants in this study, staying in the Seoul and Kyonggi areas from August 1, 1997 to February 28, 1998. Among the group, 100 participants took care of their patient at home, and another 300 participants left 100 patient at a day-care center, 100 sanatorium for senile dementia(asylum for helpless elderly people), 100 an infirmary for elderly people. Eventually 242 subjects out of the 400 were selected for the data analysis. The Zarit (1980) tool was employed to measure the degree of burden and Zung's(1965) “Self-Rating Depression Scale” was employed for the data analysis. The data was analyzed, and the percentage, t-test, ANOVA and Person's Correlation Coefficient were calculated. The results are as follows : 1. The average degree of burden that care-giving families felt was 49.13, which is somewhat high. 2. The average degree of depression that care -giving families felt was 51.95, which is relatively high. 3. The degree of burden was directly affected by the relation with the patient(F＝2.48, P＜.05), and the socio-economic status of the family(F＝5.17, P＜.05). Its also affected by the patient's educational status(F＝2.17, P＜.05). 4. The degree of depression of the family was significantly dependent on sex(t＝-2.05, P＜.05), age (F＝2.99, P＜.05), the relationship with the patient(F＝3.65, P＜.01), socio-economic status (F＝7.74, P＜.001), occupation(t＝2.82, P＜.01), health status(F＝4.42, P＜.01), and the place of residence(F＝4.30, P＜.01), The patient characteristics was significantly dependent on his/her educational status(F＝3.85, P＜.01), the period of suffering from senile dementia(F＝2.47, P＜.05), and smoking habit(F＝6.17, P＜.001). 5. The relationship between the degree of burden and that of depression reads r＝0.43, which is statistically positive correlation in the high significant level. Upon analyzing the entire summation, most care-givers for elderly patients suffering from senile dementia lack time in caring for themselves. They also experience chronic fatigue and mental discomfort caused by the isolation from society, curtailment of certain activities, a sense of responsibility for their patients, and limits of their endurance in taking care of their patients over time. In conclusion, this study emphasizes the necessity for the following propositions : 1. In order to measure the degree of burden that Korean care-giving families undergo, a new tool must be developed on the basis of Korean culture. 2. An educational program based on the demands that care-giving families undergo must be developed, and its clinical effect also has to be examined.

• 한국노년학
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.1249-1264
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• 2008

Guilt feelings are dysfunctional feelings that the primary caregiver of the frail elder are apt to have and those feelings increase a burden of caring, while there is lack of empirical study on the effect of guilt feelings on caring behaviors. In light of this, this study lays its purpose on examining the effect of the primary caregivers' guilt feelings on their burden of caring and request behaviors for help with caring, paying attention to their guilt feelings in our society where Confucian values toward supporting the elderly have remained. The questionnaire survey was conducted for 220 primary caregivers caring frail elders over 60 years of age by visiting. As a tool for measuring guilt feelings, a self-designed measure for caregivers was used (${\alpha}=.949$), and factors of guilt feelings were classified into four namely, the factors of lack of self-control, lack of resources, burnout, and the normative factor As a result, the following findings were derived. First, it was revealed that the guilt feelings of caregivers as family members have a positive correlation with a feeling of burden of caring and the feeling of burden have even effects on the four factors of guilt feelings. Second, when primary caregivers request help with caring, they feel guilty toward cohabiting family members and neighbors, and also they show no guilt feelings when using day-care services for the elderly. Especially, guilt feeling factors affecting primary caregivers were found to be the normative factor to cohabiting family members, the factor of lack of resources to neighbors, and the factor of burnout to using day-care services for the elderly. This result tells that the dysfunctional feelings of primary caregivers namely guilt feelings arising when asking help with caring not only increase their burden of caring but also can cause difficulties in sharing the role of the caregiver. Accordingly for the mental health of caregivers, we should develop programs with which we could understand and cope with their guilt feelings.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.4655-4660
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• 2013

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver cancer and the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide due to its generally poor prognosis. Caregiver burden for liver cancer cases is higher than with other cancer and needs especial attention. Methods: To explore the experiences of families of patients with newly diagnosed advanced terminal stage hepatocellular cancer by interview. Results: Nine participants were recruited in this study. Content analysis of the interviews revealed four themes: blaming oneself, disrupting the pace of life, searching all possible regimens, and not letting go. Conclusions: This study provides new insight into the needs and support of family members especially when they are facing loved ones with newly diagnosed advanced terminal stage HCC. These results will inform future supportive care service development and intervention research aimed at providing assistance in reducing unmet supportive care needs and psychological distress of these family members.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.629-638
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• 2002

The impact of chronic diseases on patients and their families depends on how well the family members cope with it. Therefore, research on strategies for facilitating the coping of the families in a desirable manner is very important. Dementia management strategies refer to specific means families of dementia patients use to cope with dementing illness of their family members. This study was designed to examine type of dementia management strategies utilized by families and to identify factors influencing them. The subjects in this study were 103 conveniently selected demented patients and their primary caregivers who were registered to a public health center located in Chungcheong Province. The subjects were visited by 20 home visiting nurses, and the data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The data were collected form May 2, 2001 to June 2, 2001. The findings of this study were as follows. 1. The most frequently used types of dementia management strategies were active management (M=3.36, S.D=.96), and encouragement (M=2.94, S.D=.99). Criticism was least used type of dementia management strategy (M=2.71, S.D=.99). 2. The factors influencing each management strategy were as follows; 1) The criticism management strategy was most frequently used by the primary caregivers who graduated elementary school (F=3.21, p<.05). 2) The encouragement strategy was most frequently used by the primary caregivers in a case when the patients were in the mild stage of dementia (F=2.76, p<.05), when the patients never had any treatment experiences (F=2.01, p<.05), when the family could afford the provision of treatment for the patients (F=-2.44, p<.050), and when the primary caregiver had a job (t=2.90, p<.01). 3) The active management strategy was most widely used by the primary caregivers who could afford the provision of treatment for the patients (F=-2.31, p<.05) and were in their 70s (F=3.04, p<.05). This type of management strategy was significantly more used by those who discussed the difficulties of caring with their family members (F=3.46, p<.05). 3. The use of criticism management strategies was significantly correlated with the total level of burden of the primary caregivers. But the types of encouragement and active management strategies had negative correlations with the caregivers' burden although they were not significant. Since the findings of this study showed that the criticism management strategy had a significant positive relationship with caregivers' burden, those who are more likely to use the negative management strategy should be identified in future studies. The primary caregivers who are more likely to use negative strategy should be more closely monitored and be focused as the group who should be intervened in future studies.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.559-567
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate patients with Lou Gehrig's disease, their families, and their actual conditions of the disease, and to find the factors to alleviate caregiving burden and the needs of service. According to the study, the sociodemographic characteristics of the patients with Lou Gehrig's disease and their patients, the disease and caregiving, and activity support service didn't influence alleviation of caregiving burden. When the main caregiver of the patient was not a spouse, or graduated from high school and less, and when the disease was diagnosed initially, there was a difference in caregiving burden. Based on the results, this study suggested that it would be necessary to make medical support suitable to Lou Gehrig's disease and come up with a convergence policy to support personalized and specialized welfare service.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.53
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• pp.105-128
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• 2003

This study examined the factors affecting family caregiver's preference for utilization of community care services among those who are caring for 65+ elderly parents, and aimed to show how social eldercare services would be settled in Korea. Help-seeking behavior model developed by Anderson and Newman(1973) was used to analyze the factors affecting their preference for utilizing the community care service among 283 family caregivers. Frequency, Chi-square, and Multinominal logistic analysis on SAS 6.12 was used. According to the results, about 90% of the family caregivers have preference for community and institute care services. In community care service, about a half comprise the preference with charge while the other without charge. However, about 90% of those for institute care service show their willingness to pay for the service. Also, a majority of caregivers like to rely on social eldercare service, rather than family as exclusively responsible, against long-term care for their elderly parents. Multinominal analysis demonstrates that use versus nonuse of community care services is primarily affected by predisposing factors(including age, carer-caree closeness, and familism) and need factors (including economic or psychological burden of eldercare, and additional role for family care). Enabling factors, such as family income level, economic support from other family members and siblings, and supportive care-helpers, are mainly associated with the preferences of free versus charge in service use. These findings provide some implications and suggestions for the development of social eldercare services in our aging society.

• 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.