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Quality of life domains important and relevant to family caregivers of advanced cancer patients in an Asian population: a qualitative study

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to identify domains of quality of life (QoL) that are culturally relevant to Chinese caregivers of advanced cancer patients in Singapore and to evaluate content adequacy of currently available instruments for use in the target population.

Methods

English- and Chinese-speaking caregivers of advanced cancer patients receiving care under a tertiary cancer center and/or a community hospice home care/day care provider were recruited for in-depth interviews. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. The identified domains, themes and sub-themes were compared to concepts addressed by items from five existing cancer-specific caregiver QoL instruments.

Results

Eighteen female and eight male caregivers aged 28–74 years participated in the study. Twenty-nine QoL themes and 59 sub-themes were identified in six domains, namely physical health, mental health, social health, spiritual health, financial health and daily life. Collectively, but not individually, the content of the five existing instruments adequately cover the physical health domain, social health domain and some themes on mental health domain for the study population. Content gaps were identified in the domains of mental health, spiritual health, daily life and financial health.

Conclusions

The present study found culturally and contextually specific themes and sub-themes about positive emotional health, spiritual health and financial health.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank staff members at National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) and HCA Hospice Care for facilitating study recruitment, Ms. Lim Siao Ee, Ms. Josephine Chua, Mr. Matthew Ng, and Mr. Huang Kai Quan for moderating the sessions, and Ms. Angela Yap, Ms. Tan Si Jia, Ms. Ng Khai Yin, Ms. Ling Jia Ying, Ms. Florence Ho, and Ms. Hoe Xin Huan for coding of the transcripts. The authors also thank the support of Duke-NUS/SingHealth Academic Medicine Research Institute and Ms. Taara Madhavan (Associate, Clinical Sciences, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School) in editing this manuscript. This work was supported in part by the Duke-NUS Signature Research Program funded by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, and the Ministry of Health, Singapore, and in part by the Lien Center for Palliative Care Grant (LCPC(ER)/2012/0003). YBC was supported by the National Research Foundation under its Clinician Scientist Award (Award No. NMRC/CSA/039/2011) and administered by the Singapore Ministry of Health’s National Medical Research Council.

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest. The authors have full control of all primary data, and they agree to allow the journal to review the data if requested.

Ethical Standards

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the National University of Singapore. Written consent was obtained prior to the interview. The study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Work, National University of Singapore, 3 Arts Link, Singapore, 117570, Singapore

    Geok Ling Lee

  2. Center for Quantitative Medicine, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, 20 College Road, Singapore, 169856, Singapore

    Mandy Yen Ling Ow, Cai Fong Wong & Yin Bun Cheung

  3. HCA Hospice Care, 12 Jalan Tan Tock Seng, Singapore, 308437, Singapore

    Ramaswamy Akhileswaran

  4. Department of Palliative Medicine, National Cancer Centre Singapore, 11 Hospital Drive, Singapore, 169610, Singapore

    Grace Su Yin Pang

  5. Department of Psychosocial Oncology, National Cancer Centre Singapore, 11 Hospital Drive, Singapore, 169610, Singapore

    Gilbert Kam Tong Fan & Brandon Huat Heng Goh

  6. Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, 10 Medical Drive, Singapore, 117597, Singapore

    Gilbert Kam Tong Fan

  7. Department of International Health, University of Tampere, 33014, Tampere, Finland

    Yin Bun Cheung

  8. Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore, 18 Science Drive 4, Singapore, 117543, Singapore

    Hwee Lin Wee

Authors
  1. Geok Ling Lee
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  2. Mandy Yen Ling Ow
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  3. Ramaswamy Akhileswaran
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  4. Grace Su Yin Pang
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  5. Gilbert Kam Tong Fan
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  6. Brandon Huat Heng Goh
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  7. Cai Fong Wong
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  8. Yin Bun Cheung
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  9. Hwee Lin Wee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yin Bun Cheung.

Additional information

Yin Bun Cheung and Hwee Lin Wee are Joint senior authors.

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Lee, G.L., Ow, M.Y.L., Akhileswaran, R. et al. Quality of life domains important and relevant to family caregivers of advanced cancer patients in an Asian population: a qualitative study. Qual Life Res 24, 817–828 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-014-0832-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-014-0832-3

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