Hsu T, et al. – This study was designed to find out if patient-caregiver assessments of patient health differed and if differences contributed to burden in caregivers of older adults with cancer. Results revealed dissimilar patient-caregiver assessments of patient function, mental health, and social support. In addition, an association of differences in assessment of instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) dependency with increased caregiver burden was observed.

Methods

• In this study, one hundred patients, aged ≥65, and their caregivers independently assessed patient function, comorbidity, nutrition, social activity, social support, and mental health.
• The Caregiver Strain Index (CSI) was completed by caregivers.
• The Wilcoxon signed rank test and paired t test were used to compare patient-caregiver assessments.
• Generalized linear regression was used to investigate association between caregiver burden and differences between patient-caregiver assessments.

Results

• 70 (range 65–91) was the median patient age.
• In addition, 70% had advanced disease.
• As per the findings, sixty percent of patients reported requiring help with instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs); most had good social support (median Medical Outcomes Study [MOS]-Social Support Survey score 92) and mental health (median Mental Health Inventory score 85).
• 73% female, 68% spousal caregivers, and 79% lived with the patient, caregivers were a median age of 66 (range 28–85).
• In comparison to patients themselves, caregivers rated patients as having poorer physical function (more IADLs dependency [p=.008], lower Karnofsky Performance Status [p=.02], lower MOS-Physical Function [p<.0001]), poorer mental health (p=.0002), and having more social support (p=.03).
• Some caregiver burden (mean CSI score 3.1) was observed in three-quarters of caregivers.
• An association was found between only differences in patient-caregiver assessment of the patient's need for help with IADLs and increased caregiver burden (p=.03).