title: Burden on informal caregivers of elderly cancer survivors: risk versus resilience.
abstract: This study assessed psychological morbidity and resilience, including the subjective burden of 76 caregivers of elderly cancer survivors utilizing a cross-sectional questionnaire. Participants were mainly elderly female spouses, sole-caregiving > 35 hours per week; 19.1% and 23.6% reported moderate or greater anxiety and depression, respectively. A significant regression model found depression, emotion-focused coping, and greater years since diagnosis as significant predictors of subjective caregiver burden. Thus, caregiving appears a dominant role for this group and the Brief Assessment Scale for Caregivers of the Medically Ill (BASC) appears to be an efficient screening tool for psychological morbidity in this under-supported group.
authors: a School of Psychology, The University of Adelaide , South Australia , Australia.
authors: Simeon B W
authors: SB
authors: Jones
authors: Hayley S
authors: HS
authors: Whitford
authors: Melissa J
authors: MJ
authors: Bond
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012306:Risk; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: burden; cancer; caregiver; geriatric; psychological morbidity; psychological resilience