Investigation of depression and quality of life factors in cancer patients' caregivers.

Purpose: This study aimed to explore depression and quality of life (QoL) factors among caregivers of patients with cancer and to better understand who the caregivers are and how caregiving affects them.

Methods: This descriptive study was conducted at the Medical Oncology Department of Cukurova University, Balcali Hospital. The study consisted of 150 cancer patients' caregivers who had been treated between September 1 and October 15, 2015. Percent distribution was used to evaluate the sociodemographic characteristics of caregivers. One way ANOVA, t-test and frequencies were used for other analyses. A p value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: Of the caregivers, 42.7% (n=64) were male, 67.3% (n=101) were married, 30% (n=45) had university education, and their mean age was 40.1±13.7 years. Also, 36% were offspring of the cancer patients. Of caregivers 51.3% were sharing the caregiving process with someone else. The mean value of Beck depression inventory (BDI) was 14.08±10.9 (min-max, 0-55). According to the values of the inventory, 42% were normal, 24.7% were mildly, 20.7% were moderately and 12.7% were severely depressed. A significant association was found between BDI and overall QoL (WHOQOL-Bref) for all domains (p<0.001).

Conclusion: We believe that these results are a step toward identifying the associated factors for reducing caregivers' depression and ameliorating their QoL.