| Summary: | 碩士 === 長庚大學 === 護理學研究所 === 87 === The purpose of this study was to (1) describe the change of caregivers'' burden, depression and quality of life during the 4 weeks following hospital discharge; (2) to examine the relationship of patient, caregiver and home care characteristics to caregivers'' burden, depression and quality of life over time; and (3) to determine the relationship between caregivers'' burden, depression and quality of life.
Data were collected through longitudinal correlation survey. A convenience sample of forty-one family caregivers of cancer patients from a medical center of northern Taiwan was obtained. The Caregiver Strain Index (CSI) , the Center for Epidemiological Studies of Depression (CES-D) and Caregiver Quality of Life Index (CQOL) were administered within 48 hours of discharging to hospital (T0) and 1, 2 and 4 weeks post-discharge (T1-T3).
Patients'' symptom distress and functional status, caregivers'' depression and quality of life remained stable from discharging to week 4. The mean score of caregivers'' burden at discharging was higher than that of week 1, 2 and 4. Patients'' symptom distress and functional status, caregivers'' job and income change, daily caring hours had significant effect on caregivers'' burden, depression and quality of life. Higher levels of caregivers'' burden was associated with higher levels of caregivers'' depression and lower levels of quality of life.
The findings suggest that the changes of life before and after taking care of patient may be the main reason for increasing caregivers'' burden, depression and decreasing quality of life.
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