Cancer Care Burden among Primary Family Caregivers of Iranian Hematologic Cancer Patients

Background: Providing care for hematologic cancer patients may lead to many negative complications indifferent aspects of life in their family caregivers. Based on a wide review of relevant literature, there are limiteddata about the burden of giving care for hematologic cancer patients on their primary family caregivers in Iranor other Middle Eastern countries. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the cancer care burden onprimary family caregivers of hematologic cancer patients, in terms of physical, psychological, social, spiritual, andfinancial aspects. Materials and
Methods: In this descriptive study, 151 primary family caregivers of hematologiccancer patients referred to two cancer care centers in East Azerbaijan Province in northwest of Iran participated.The Financial Distress/Financial Well-being Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Vaux Social SupportQuestionnaire, Spiritual Well-being Scale, and SF-36 were used for data collection. Data analysis was performedwith SPSS software.
Results: The findings of this study indicated that the primary family caregivers experiencea high level of financial distress and a significant percentage of them suffered from anxiety and depression. Inaddition, the physical quality of life in these caregivers was moderate. On the other hand, spiritual health andsocial support of participants was at an acceptable level.
Conclusions: Iranian primary family caregivers ofhematologic cancer patients experience many problems in physical, psychological, and financial aspects of theirlife. Therefore, developing care plans for reducing these problems appears necessary.