The quality of life of regional and remote cancer caregivers in Australia

Belinda C Goodwin; Fiona Crawford-Williams; Michael Ireland; Sonja March; Suzanne K Chambers; Joanne F Aitken; Jeff Dunn

doi:10.1111/ecc.13587

The quality of life of regional and remote cancer caregivers in Australia

Eur J Cancer Care (Engl). 2022 Jul;31(4):e13587. doi: 10.1111/ecc.13587. Epub 2022 Apr 11.

Authors

Belinda C Goodwin^{1

2}, Fiona Crawford-Williams^{1

2

3}, Michael Ireland^{2

4}, Sonja March^{2

4}, Suzanne K Chambers^{5

6

7}, Joanne F Aitken^{1

2

8

9}, Jeff Dunn^{1

2

5

10

11}

Affiliations

¹ Cancer Council Queensland, Fortitude Valley.
² Centre for Health Research, University of Southern Queensland, Springfield.
³ Cancer Palliative Care Outcomes Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Australia.
⁴ School of Psychology, University of Southern Queensland, Springfield, Australia.
⁵ Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, NSW, Australia.
⁶ Faculty of Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
⁷ Exercise Medicine Research Institute, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia.
⁸ School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
⁹ School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Australia.
¹⁰ Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Mt Gravatt, QLD, Australia.
¹¹ Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Abstract

Objective: This study compares the well-being of rural caregivers with that of the general population and explores the potential drivers of poorer outcomes.

Method: Patient-caregiver dyads (n = 241) residing in regional or remote Queensland, Australia, reported on QoL, chronic illness, caregiver burden, depression, anxiety and stress. Caregiver outcomes were compared with population norms and patient outcomes. Multiple regressions were conducted to identify factors associated with poorer caregiver outcomes.

Results: Caregivers reported lower mental health-related QoL (M = 0.436, 95% CI = 0.410-0.462) in comparison with age-matched population norms (M = 0.556, 95% CI = 0.532-0.580). No differences existed between caregiver and population norms for anxiety, stress and depression. Caregiver chronic illness and higher burden were associated with poorer mental and physical QoL, depression, anxiety and stress (η² s ranging from 0.03 to 0.30). These associations were slightly stronger for male caregivers when compared with female caregivers (η² s ranging from 0.03 to 0.08).

Conclusion: It is vital that efforts are made to improve rural caregivers' mental and emotional well-being. Interventions that support caregivers with chronic conditions reduce caregiver burden and take into consideration the unique experience of male caregivers will go some way to addressing this. Future research is needed to identify other drivers of health outcomes in this group.

Keywords: anxiety; cancer; caregiver; depression; quality of life; rural.

MeSH terms

Anxiety / psychology
Caregivers* / psychology
Chronic Disease
Cross-Sectional Studies
Depression / psychology
Female
Humans
Male
Neoplasms* / therapy
Quality of Life / psychology