Abstract
Shorter hospital stays and greater emphasis on outpatient care means that family members have the primary responsibility for supporting a person with brain tumor to manage the physical, cognitive, behavioral, and emotional effects of the illness and its treatment. Given the integral role of family caregivers, it is essential to understand their experience of the impact of brain tumor and their own support needs. Accordingly, this qualitative study aimed to investigate family caregivers' experiences of support and relationship changes in the context of brain tumor. In-depth interviews were conducted with 11 family caregivers (8 spouse/partner, 3 parents) of people with malignant or benign tumor. A thematic analysis of interview transcripts identified two major themes, namely, "Meanings of Support" and "Relationship Impacts." The Meanings of Support theme was characterized by intertwined and distinct support needs, varied expectations of support and factors influencing support expectations. The Relationship Impacts theme depicted mixed experiences of strengthened, maintained, and strained relations with the person with brain tumor. Overall, the findings highlight that there is considerable variability in caregivers' experiences and expectations of support and the impact of brain tumor on relationships. The implications of these findings for the provision of caregiver support are discussed.
Keywords
Brain tumor, family caregivers, Qualitative research, Relationships, Support, adult, age, aged, anxiety, Article, astrocytoma, benign tumor, brain tumor, cancer therapy, caregiver experience, Caregiver Strain Index, caregiver support, clinical article, coding, colloid cyst, data analysis, depression, Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, experience, female, gender, glioblastoma, human, human relation, information processing, male, malignant neoplastic disease, meningioma, mental function, methodology, normal human, oligodendroglioma, patient satisfaction, perception, phenomenology, practice guideline, qualitative research, questionnaire, rigor, semi structured interview, social support, stress
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
2015
Publisher
Frontiers Research Foundation
School
Health and Wellness Institute
RAS ID
20084
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Ownsworth, T., Goadby, E., Chambers, S.K. (2015). Support after brain tumor means different things: Family caregivers' experiences of support and relationship changes in Frontiers in Oncology, 5(33) doi: doi: 10.3389/fonc.2015.00033. Available here.