Abstract:
Social support has been identified as a key factor to protect wellbeing for home hospice cancer caregivers. However, few studies have assessed social support over time in this context, and measures of support are often limited to general assessments of perceived support. Our goal was to (1) describe change in cancer home hospice caregivers\' social support over time during care and into bereavement and (2) explore the impact of perceived stress and support from family and non-family members on caregivers\' perceived general social support. We conducted a secondary analysis of longitudinal prospective questionnaire data. Forty caregivers completed measures of general perceived support, family and non-family support and stress during hospice enrollment and 2 and 6 months post the patient\'s death. Linear mixed models were used to determine change in support over time and the contribution of specific support/stress ratings to general support assessments. Caregivers overall had moderate and stable levels of social support over time, though there was significant variation between and within individuals. Family and non-family support and stress from family predicted general perceptions of social support, while no effects were found for non-family stress. This work suggests a need for more specific measures of support and stress, and the need for research to focus on improving baseline levels of caregiver perceived support.
摘要:
社会支持已被确定为保护家庭临终关怀癌症护理人员福祉的关键因素。然而,在这种情况下,很少有研究评估随着时间的推移社会支持,支持措施通常仅限于对感知到的支持的一般评估。我们的目标是(1)描述癌症家庭临终关怀护理人员在护理期间和丧亲期间的社会支持随时间的变化,以及(2)探索家庭和非家庭成员的感知压力和支持对护理人员的影响感知一般社会支持。我们对纵向前瞻性问卷数据进行了二次分析。40名护理人员完成了一般感知支持措施,临终关怀纳入期间以及患者死亡后2个月和6个月的家庭和非家庭支持和压力。线性混合模型用于确定支持随时间的变化以及特定支持/压力等级对一般支持评估的贡献。随着时间的推移,护理人员总体上拥有中等稳定的社会支持水平,尽管个体之间和个体内部存在显着差异。家庭和非家庭的支持和压力来自家庭预测社会支持的一般看法,而对于非家庭压力没有发现影响。这项工作表明需要更具体的支持和压力措施,以及需要研究专注于提高护理人员感知支持的基线水平。