Post-traumatic growth and death anxiety in caregivers of cancer patients: PHOENIX study

Abstract

Introduction Caregivers of cancer patients are exposed to numerous psychosocial problems, Post traumatic growth (PTG) is defined as a positive psychological change that occurs following a meaningfully challenging or traumatic life event. Objectives The purpose of the study is to define the predictors of PTG and death anxiety (DA) and evaluate the impact of DAN on PTG Methods The study is designed as a multicenter survey study. Caregivers of cancer patients were evaluated with structured questionnaires to assess the DAN and PTG and clinical parameters associated with them. The validated PTG scale and Templer death anxiety scale were used. Results 231 participants were evaluated in 3 different cancer centers. 25.6% of the participants had at least one cancer screening after the diagnosis. Age more than 40 (73.0 vs 65.0, p=0.024) and low monthly income ((72 vs 65, p=0.034)were associated with higher PTG scores. Female sex, lowincome, not working, having chronic disease, history of psychiatric illness were associated with higher DAN scores. In multivariate analysis, female sex was the only risk factor for high DAN scores.(RR= 2.0, 95% CI, 1.0-3.9, p=0.046). There was a positive correlation between PTG and DAN scores (r=0.13, p=0.037). Positive impacts were detected on philosophy of life (15.0 vs 13.0, p=0.035) and changes in relationship (17.0 vs 14.0, p=0.01) Conclusions It's the first data about the association between DAN and PTG. We found a positive impact of death anxiety on positive psychological changes in caregivers of cancer patients. The caregivers who have risk factors should be cautiously evaluated.