Exploring Influence of Spiritual Well-being on Caregiver Burden in Head-and-Neck Malignancy: A Cross-sectional Study

Taking care of a patient with head-and-neck malignancy (HNM) entails enormous physical, emotional, cognitive and moral challenges. Caregivers frequently turn to spiritual practices such as prayer, offering and meditation to enhance inner strength and coping ability. Assessment of caregiver burden (CGB) would remain incomplete without considering spiritual well-being (SWB). We set out to assess CGB and SWB in caregivers of patients suffering from HNMs.

This cross-sectional study was carried out in a medical college-associated tertiary care centre after approval from the institutional ethics committee. CGB was determined using a translated version of Zarit Burden interview 22. SWB was determined by the spiritual wellbeing scale (SWBS), which was translated into Gujarati and validated. Relevant demographic data were also collected and analysed.

(1) Patient characteristics: (i) Number of participants: 60 (37 males and 23 females). Mean age: 55.56 years, (ii) Mean time since diagnosis: 7.33 months, (iii) Type of malignancy: Buccal mucosae 31, tongue 12, hard palate 7, lip 4, others 6, (iv) Type of family: Nuclear 14, joint 46. Locale: Rural: 36, urban: 24. (2) Caregiver characteristics: (i) Mean age: 44 years, (ii) Educational status: Graduate and above: 19, undergraduate: 22, primary education: 19, (iii) Occupation: Home-makers: 13, skilled: 18, semi-skilled: 18, others: 6. (3) CGB scores: Mean: 35.30 (Standard deviation [SD] = 11.25). Mild, moderate and high burden were reported by 66.7%, 25% and 3.3% caregivers, respectively. 5% of caregivers reported no burden. (4) SWB score: Mean: 81.70 (SD = 14.84). Low, moderate and high SWB scores were observed in 1.7%, 93.3% and 5%, respectively. (5) There was a significant correlation between higher SWB and lower CGB scores at 0.01 level.

Moderate/high SWB was observed in 95% of caregivers regardless of their educational, social and family backgrounds. There was a significant correlation between higher SWB and lower CGB scores.