Support based on psychoeducation intervention to address quality of life and care burden among caregivers of patients with cancer: a randomized controlled trial.
Seyedmohammad Mirhosseini, Fateme Imani Parsa, Hasan Moghadam-Roshtkhar, Mohammad Hasan Basirinezhad, Malihe Ameri, Hossein Ebrahimi
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Abstract
Introduction: Cancer affects not only patients but also their family caregivers, causing increased caregiving burden and reduced quality of life. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a psychoeducation intervention on improving the quality of life and reducing caregiving burden among caregivers of cancer patients.
Methods: This study employed a non-blinded randomized controlled trial design involving 66 family caregivers of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy in Shahroud, Iran in 2024. Of the 69 caregivers initially approached, one declined to participate, and two were excluded due to lack of smartphone access, leaving a final sample of 66 caregivers. Participants were assigned to either the psychoeducation intervention program or the control group using the quadruple block randomization method. The intervention spanned 3 months and consisted of six online group sessions lasting 35-45 min each. The psychoeducation intervention was delivered by trained psychiatric nurse. Data were collected before and 1 month after the intervention using the SF-36 quality of life questionnaire and the Novak and Guest care burden inventory. Statistical analysis was conducted using chi squared, independent t-tests, and the linear regression analysis with a significance level set at 0.05.
Results: The primary outcome of this study was the change in caregivers' quality of life and caregiver burden. Initially, both groups exhibited similar average scores for care burden and quality of life (p > 0.05). The intervention group showed a significant reduction in caregiving burden by 4.1 ± 13.7, whereas the control group experienced a slight increase of 2.5 ± 12.0. Similarly, quality of life scores improved by 4.7 ± 16.9 in the intervention group but declined by 8.6 ± 15.3 in the control group. Regression analysis indicated that the psychoeducation group demonstrated significantly lower caregiving burden scores and higher quality of life scores following the intervention compared to the control group.
Conclusion: Caregivers of cancer patients often face significant burdens that impact their quality of life. Psychoeducational interventions focusing on coping, problem-solving, and stress management should be integrated into cancer care plans to provide essential support.
期刊介绍：
Frontiers in Psychology is the largest journal in its field, publishing rigorously peer-reviewed research across the psychological sciences, from clinical research to cognitive science, from perception to consciousness, from imaging studies to human factors, and from animal cognition to social psychology. Field Chief Editor Axel Cleeremans at the Free University of Brussels is supported by an outstanding Editorial Board of international researchers. This multidisciplinary open-access journal is at the forefront of disseminating and communicating scientific knowledge and impactful discoveries to researchers, academics, clinicians and the public worldwide. The journal publishes the best research across the entire field of psychology. Today, psychological science is becoming increasingly important at all levels of society, from the treatment of clinical disorders to our basic understanding of how the mind works. It is highly interdisciplinary, borrowing questions from philosophy, methods from neuroscience and insights from clinical practice - all in the goal of furthering our grasp of human nature and society, as well as our ability to develop new intervention methods.
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