Correlation Between Spiritual Well-Being and Family Caregiver Burden in Patients with Cancer

Cancer as one of the most common illnesses in the world is associated with mental, physical, social, and financial problems, which affects not only the patients but also the family caregivers and creates a Burden of care. Few studies have investigated relationship spiritual well-being and Burden of care in family caregivers of cancer patients.

This cross-sectional correlational study was conducted on 130 caregivers of cancer patients referred to Tohid hospital of Sanandaj in 2018 using the convenience sampling method. Demographic form, the spirituality well-being, and the caregiver burden inventory questionnaires were used to collect the data. Data were analyzed using the SPSS-21 software, descriptive statistics, Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients, independent T-test, and ANOVA at a significance level of 0.05.

The results showed that the mean and standard deviation of the spiritual well-being score and Burden of care was 72.70 ± 8.51and 58.097 ± 10.42, respectively. There was a significant relationship between mental well-being (and its components, including spiritual prosperity and existential well-being) and Burden of care (r = - 0.377, P = 0.01).

Family caregivers experience the Burden of care during caring for cancer patients, which is related to their spiritual well-being. Therefore, paying attention to the mental well-being of these caregivers is emphasized.