Psychological distress and loneliness in caregiver of advanced oncological inpatients

Abstract

The objective of this study is to compare and examine the relationships between levels of loneliness, anxiety, depression, and other variables on primary caregivers and cancer inpatients. The study involved 100 Turkish primary caregivers of inpatients with advanced or terminal stages of cancer. Loneliness and anxiety scores were significantly higher for the primary caregivers of inpatients with terminal stage of cancer than primary caregivers of inpatients with advanced stage of cancer. Excluding the cancer stage, loneliness and anxiety were primarily associated with the socio-demographic factors of primary caregivers rather than the characteristics of patients.

Keywords: advanced cancer; anxiety; caregivers; depression; loneliness.