ArticleCancer medicine2024
More competent informal caregivers reduce advanced cancer patients' unplanned healthcare use and costs.
Article in Cancer medicine, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Caregiving Experiences, Supportive Care Needs and Coping Strategies Among Family Caregivers of Patients with Colorectal Cancer in Kazakhstan: A Qualitative Descriptive Study.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2026Article
- Defining informal caregivers by their characteristics safety roles and training needs in Europe.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- More competent informal caregivers reduce advanced cancer patients' unplanned healthcare use and costs.Cancer medicine · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPatients with metastatic cancer experience high healthcare use and costs, most of which are unplanned. We aimed to assess whether patients with more competent informal caregivers have lower unplanned healthcare use and costs.
methodsThis study used data from a prospective cohort of patients with solid metastatic cancer. Patients and their informal family caregivers were surveyed every 3 months until patients' death. Patients' unplanned healthcare use/costs were examined through hospital records. Caregivers responded to the 4-item Caregiver Competence Scale. First, in a deceased subsample of patients and their caregivers, we used patients' last 2 years of data (226 dyads) to assess the association between caregivers' competency (independent variable) and patients' unplanned healthcare use/costs (outcomes). Next, in a prospective sample of patient-caregiver dyads (up to 15 surveys), we assessed whether patients' functional well-being and psychological distress moderated the association between caregivers' competency and unplanned healthcare use/costs (311 dyads).
resultsIn the deceased subsample, during last 2 years of patients' life, caregivers' higher competency lowered the odds of patients' unplanned healthcare use [OR (CI) = 0.86 (0.75, 0.98), p = 0.03], and was associated with a significant reduction in unplanned healthcare costs [Coeff (CI) = -0.19 (-0.36, -0.01), p = 0.03]. In the prospective sample, patients' functional well-being and psychological distress moderated the association between caregivers' competency and patients' unplanned healthcare use/costs.
conclusionWith deterioration in patients' condition and an increase in caregiving demands, improving caregivers' competency can reduce patients' unplanned healthcare use and costs. This should be further tested in future trials.
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