Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Burden among partner caregivers of patients diagnosed with localized prostate cancer within 1 year after diagnosis: an economic perspective

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Supportive Care in Cancer Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Informal care plays an important role in the overall care for people with cancer. This study estimates lost productivity and informal caregiving and associated costs among partner caregivers of localized prostate cancer patients within 1 year after diagnosis.

Methods

We applied data from the Family and Cancer Therapy Selection study, a three-wave self-administered survey among patients diagnosed with localized prostate cancer and their partner caregivers in multiple clinics in the USA. Time spent was measured by the sum of working hours lost, informal caregiving hours performed, and hours spent on household chores. The national median income for women 55 years or older was used to calculate costs associated with the time spent using the opportunity cost method. Descriptive and bivariate analyses were conducted.

Results

The average working hours decreased from 14.0 h/week (SD = 17.6) to 10.9 h/week (SD = 15.9), without a significant change in responsibility/intensity at work. The mean annual time spent on informal caregiving and household chores was 65.9 h/year (SD = 172.4) and 76.2 h/year (SD = 193.3), respectively. The mean annual economic burden among partner caregivers was US$6,063 (range US$571–US$47,105) in 2009 dollars accounted for by a mean of 276.2 h (range 26–2,146) in the study sample. The time spent on informal caregiving and household chores varied by patient and caregiver characteristics.

Conclusions

Pilot estimates on non-medical economic burden among partner caregivers (spouses) during the initial phase of the treatment provide important information for comprehensive estimation of disease burden and can be used in cost-effectiveness analyses of prostate cancer interventions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Arno PS, Levine C, Memmott MM (1999) The economic value of informal caregiving. Health Affairs 18:182–188

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Yabroff KR, Kim Y (2009) Time costs associated with informal caregiving for cancer survivors. Cancer 115(18 Suppl):4362–73

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Kim Y, Schulz R (2008) Family caregivers' strains: comparative analysis of cancer caregiving with dementia, diabetes, and frail elderly caregiving. J Aging Health 20:483–503

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Kim Y, Spillers RL, Hall DL (2012) Quality of life of family caregivers 5 years after a relative's cancer diagnosis: follow-up of the national quality of life survey for caregivers. Psychooncology 21:273–81

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Hayman JA, Langa KM, Kabeto MU, Katz SJ, DeMonner SM, Chernew ME et al (2001) Estimating the cost of informal caregiving for elderly patients with cancer. J Clin Oncol 19:3219–25

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Sherwood PR, Donovan HS, Given CW, Lu X, Given BA, Hricik A et al (2008) Predictors of employment and lost hours from work in cancer caregivers. Psychooncology 17:598–605

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Brown ML, Riley GF, Schussler N, Etzioni R (2002) Estimating health care costs related to cancer treatment from SEER-Medicare data. Med Care 40(8 Suppl):104–17

    Google Scholar 

  8. Yabroff KR, Davis WW, Lamont EB, Fahey A, Topor M, Brown ML, Warren JL (2007) Patient time costs associated with cancer care. J Natl Cancer Inst 99:14–23

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Lavigne JE, Phelps CE, Mushlin A, Lednar WM (2003) Reductions in individual work productivity associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Pharmacoeconomics 21:1123–34

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Mariotto AB, Yabroff KR, Shao Y, Feuer EJ, Brown ML (2011) Projections of the cost of cancer care in the United States: 2010–2020. J Natl Cancer Inst 103:117–28

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Hjortsberg C, Persson U (2010) The value of informal caregiver time for psychotic illness. J Ment Health Policy Econ 13:127–33

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Van Houtven CH, Ramsey SD, Hornbrook MC, Atienza AA, van Ryn M (2010) Economic burden for informal caregivers of lung and colorectal cancer patients. Oncologist 15:883–93

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Basu A, Dale W, Elstein A, Meltzer D (2010) A time tradeoff method for eliciting partner's quality of life due to patient's health states in prostate cancer. Med Decis Making 30:355–65

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Grunfeld E, Coyle D, Whelan T, Clinch J, Reyno L, Earle CC et al (2004) Family caregiver burden: results of a longitudinal study of breast cancer patients and their principal caregivers. CMAJ 170:1795–801

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group (2010). United States Cancer Statistics: 1999–2007 incidence and mortality web-based report. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Cancer Institute, Atlanta. Available at: www.cdc.gov/uscs. Accessed 18 June 2011

  16. CDC (2011) Cancer Survivors—United States, 2007. MMWR 60:269–272

    Google Scholar 

  17. Altekruse SF, Kosary CL, Krapcho M, et al. (2010). SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975–2007. National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD. http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2007/. Accessed 22 June 2011

  18. Li C, Ekwueme DU (2010) Years of potential life lost caused by prostate cancer deaths in the United States—projection from 2004 through 2050. Cancer Epidemiol 34:368–72

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Penson DF, Litwin MS, Aaronson NK (2003) Health related quality of life in men with prostate cancer. J Urol 169:1653–61

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Namiki S, Arai Y (2010) Health-related quality of life in men with localized prostate cancer. Int J Urol 17:125–38

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Harden J (2005) Developmental life stage and couples' experiences with prostate cancer: a review of the literature. Cancer Nurs 28:85–98

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Zeliadt SB, Moinpour CM, Blough DK, Penson DF, Hall IJ, Smith JL et al (2010) Preliminary treatment considerations among men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer. Am J Manag Care 16:e121–30

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. D'Amico AV, Whittington R, Malkowicz SB et al (2001) Predicting prostate specific antigen outcome preoperatively in the prostate specific antigen era. J Urol 166:2185–2188

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Ware J Jr, Kosinski M, Keller SD (1996) A 12-item short-form health survey: construction of scales and preliminary tests of reliability and validity. Med Care 34:220–33

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Wei J, Dunn R, Litwin M et al (2000) Development and Validation of the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite (EPIC) for comprehensive assessment of health-related quality of life in men with prostate cancer. Urology 56:899–905

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. StataCorp. (2011). Statistical software: Release 11.2. Stata, College Station, TX.

  27. Gysels M, Higginson IJ (2009) Reconciling employment with caring for a husband with an advanced illness. BMC Health Serv Res 9:216–225

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Bradley CJ, Neumark D, Luo Z, Bednarek H, Schenk M (2005) Employment outcomes of men treated for prostate cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 97:958–65

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Bradley CJ, Neumark D, Luo Z, Schenk M (2007) Employment and cancer: findings from a longitudinal study of breast and prostate cancer survivors. Cancer Invest 25:47–54

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. van Ryn M, Sanders S, Kahn K, van Houtven C, Griffin JM, Martin M et al (2011) Objective burden, resources, and other stressors among informal cancer caregivers: a hidden quality issue? Psychooncology 20:44–52

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Muurinen JM (1986) The economics of informal care. Labor market effects in the National Hospice Study. Med Care 24:1007–17

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Wilt TJ, MacDonald R, Rutks I, Shamliyan TA, Taylor BC, Kane RL (2008) Systematic review: comparative effectiveness and harms of treatments for clinically localized prostate cancer. Ann Intern Med 148:435–448

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Bradley CJ, Lansdorp-Vogelaar I, Yabroff KR, Dahman B, Mariotto A, Feuer EJ, Brown ML (2011) Productivity savings from colorectal cancer prevention and control strategies. Am J Prev Med 41:e5–e14

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Williams AM, Eby JA, Crooks VA, Stajduhar K, Giesbrecht M, Vuksan M, Cohen SR, Brazil K, Allan D (2011) Canada's Compassionate Care Benefit: is it an adequate public health response to addressing the issue of caregiver burden in end-of-life care? BMC Public Health 11:335–350

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Disclaimer

The findings and conclusions in this study are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Disclosure

This study was supported by the Cooperative Agreement Number SIP 25–04 1-U48-DP-000050 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Prevention Research Centers Program, through the University of Washington Health Promotion Research Center. There is no conflict of interest. The corresponding author has full access to all primary data and agree to allow the journal to review their data if requested.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway NE, MS F-76, Atlanta, GA, 30341-3724, USA

    Chunyu Li, Ingrid J. Hall, Judith Lee Smith & Donatus U. Ekwueme

  2. Public Health Services Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA

    Steven B. Zeliadt, Carol M. Moinpour & Scott D. Ramsey

  3. Health Services Research & Development Center of Excellence, VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, WA, USA

    Steven B. Zeliadt

  4. Vanderbilt Institute for Medicine and Public Health, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    David F. Penson

  5. Department of Urology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA

    Ian M. Thompson

  6. Urology Services, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA

    Thomas E. Keane

Authors
  1. Chunyu Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Steven B. Zeliadt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ingrid J. Hall
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Judith Lee Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Donatus U. Ekwueme
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Carol M. Moinpour
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. David F. Penson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Ian M. Thompson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Thomas E. Keane
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Scott D. Ramsey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chunyu Li.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Li, C., Zeliadt, S.B., Hall, I.J. et al. Burden among partner caregivers of patients diagnosed with localized prostate cancer within 1 year after diagnosis: an economic perspective. Support Care Cancer 21, 3461–3469 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-013-1931-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-013-1931-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation