The relationship between caregiver's burden and patient's quality of life in women with breast cancer

Caregivers of patients with cancer suffer from fatigue and high levels of caregiver burden. This study aimed to determine the level of caregiver burden in relation to the quality of life of breast cancer patients. This cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study conducted in 116 caregivers of breast cancer patients. Data collection instrument included a questionnaire contains caregiver’s burden inventoryand cancer patient's Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30. Among the five subscales of caregiver’s burden, caregivers have the most complaints of lack of time. Among the functional components of patient's quality of life, social dysfunction, role dysfunction, and emotional dysfunction, respectively, show the highest correlation with caregiver’s burden. Among the components of the signs of quality of life, pain, insomnia and fatigue, respectively, show the highest correlation with caregiver’s burden. The patient's social dysfunction explains 19 and the patient's pain explain 17 percent of the variance of caregiver’s burden. There is an inverse relationship between the age of the patient and caregiver burden. Based on the findings, improving the patient's social support network by self-help groups, Pain management courses for patients, providing informational support to caregivers to reduce caregiver burden and subsequently improving patient quality of life could be recommended.