Family Caregivers' Burden, Patients' Resourcefulness, and Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients With Colorectal...

To examine how family caregivers' burden and patients' resourcefulness influence each other and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with colorectal cancer.

This study was conducted in an outpatient clinic at a medical center in Taichung, Taiwan. A total of 84 patient-caregiver dyads were recruited, and 43 patients had advanced-stage cancer. Patients and their caregivers signed consent forms individually. Patients were aged 29-77 years, and caregivers were aged 22-75 years.

The theory of resourceful-ness and QOL guided this study. An F test and multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationships among demographic characteristics, family caregivers' burden, patients' resourcefulness, and patients' HRQOL.

Higher-resourcefulness patients tended to have caregivers with higher self-esteem and fewer health impacts. Caregivers with fewer impacts to health and finances and higher self-esteem were predictive of higher resourcefulness in patients. Higher patient resourcefulness, fewer caregiver disruptions to daily schedule and impacts to finances, and higher caregiver self-esteem were predictors of patients' HRQOL.

When developing and evaluating education programs about cognitive skills training for patients with cancer, nurses should take family caregivers' burden into consideration to support optimal patient outcomes and HRQOL.