Supporting the Supporters: What are the Unmet Needs and Quality of Life of Caregivers of Cancer Patients in Singapore?

Background: Caregivers of cancer patients may assume diverse responsibilities during the patient’s cancer trajectory, providing physical assistance, emotional and financial support. These responsibilities can be highly demanding, emotionally stressful and financially draining and can impact on the caregivers’ quality of life (QOL). This study aims to determine the unmet needs of caregivers of cancer patients in Singapore and establish if the unmet needs are associated with their QOL in order to guide practice. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 986 caregivers of cancer patients. Determinants of caregivers’ unmet needs and QOL were assessed by the Support Person Unmet Needs Survey (SPUNS-SF) and the Singapore version of the Caregiver Quality of Life Index-Cancer (CQOLC-S25). Results: The mean overall score of unmet needs was 20.98 ± 20.1. The top 3 items with the highest mean score of unmet needs were all from the “Future” domain viz. “dealing with worry about cancer getting worse” (1.50 ± 1.4), “dealing with not knowing what lies in the future” (1.43 ± 1.3) and “dealing with worry about cancer coming back” (1.20 ± 1.3). Caregivers who were younger, the primary caregivers, caregivers who provided financial assistance to the patients they cared for, caregivers whose health status were made worse by caregiving activities, caregivers who were taking care of female patients, lung cancer patients and patients on palliative care had significantly higher mean overall score of unmet needs. The mean overall QOL score was 71.34 ± 17.5. The overall QOL scores were negatively correlated with the overall scores of unmet needs. There were significant negative correlation between QOL and all domains of unmet needs. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that caregivers of cancer have many unmet needs and these unmet needs have a significant negative effect on their QOL. Thus, addressing their unmet needs is critical to enhance their coping skills and ultimately their QOL.