• Palliative medicine · Feb 2016

    Review

    A systematic review and thematic synthesis of quality of life in the informal carers of cancer patients with cachexia.

    • Sally Wheelwright, Anne-Sophie Darlington, Jane B Hopkinson, Deborah Fitzsimmons, and Colin Johnson.
    • Cancer Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK University Surgical Unit (MP 816), Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, UK s.j.wheelwright@soton.ac.uk.
    • Palliat Med. 2016 Feb 1; 30 (2): 149-60.

    BackgroundInformal carers of cancer patients with cachexia face additional challenges to those encountered by informal carers in general because of the central role food and eating play in everyday life. Patient weight loss and anorexia, core features of cancer cachexia, are frequent causes of distress in caregivers. Identification of quality of life issues can inform the development of interventions for both caregivers and patients and facilitate communication with healthcare professionals.AimTo identify quality of life issues that are relevant to carers of cancer patients with cachexia.DesignA systematic review and thematic synthesis of the qualitative literature were conducted. Reporting followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.Data SourcesPubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge, EMBASE, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES were searched for publications dated from January 1980 to February 2015 using search terms relating to cancer, cachexia, quality of life and carers. Papers written in the English language, featuring direct quotes from the carers of adult patients with any cancer diagnosis and cachexia or problems with weight loss or anorexia, were included.ResultsFive themes were extracted from the 16 identified studies. These highlighted the impact on everyday life, the attempts of some carers to take charge, the need for healthcare professional's input, conflict with the patient and negative emotions.ConclusionThe complexity of caring for a cancer patient with cachexia translates into a range of problems and experiences for informal carers. By addressing the impact of caring for a patient with cancer cachexia on carers, both caregiver and patient quality of life may improve.© The Author(s) 2015.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…