Evaluation of caregivers’ quality of life in patients with cancer with the use of the Caregiver Quality of Life-Cancer questionnaire

Introduction: The Caregiver Quality of Life-Cancer (CQOL-C) questionnaire is a research tool assessing the quality of caregivers’ lives. The questionnaire measures important components of the quality of life caregivers’ functions: physical, emotional, social and economic. The research determines the severity level of caregiver burnout syndrome , mental imbalance, and adaptation to the illness of a family member. There is a lack of any instrument in Poland to measure caregivers’ quality of life in patients with cancer in aspects indicated above.

Aim of the study: To assess the reliability of the CQOL-C in those who provide care for patients with cancer.

Material and methods: The research was conducted among 59 caregivers taking care of the patients with cancer in the Opole and Lodz province area. The research tool was the CQOL-C questionnaire, consisting of 35 questions. The reliability of the CQOL-C was based on Cronbach’s  values. The correlation between variables was examined with the coefficient of Spearman’s rank correlation.

Results: The questionnaire reliability coefficient Cronbach  totaled 0.882. For psychosomatic domain totaled 0.883, positive adaptation: 0.734 and economic functioning: 0.913. The lower the caregivers’ age, the higher the results of psychosomatic domain. The spouses constitute the largest respondents’ proportion with the quality of life in the domain of adaptation to the family member’s illness.

Conclusions: The validated version of the questionnaire CQOL-C is a reliable tool that can be used in Poland to assess the quality of life in caregivers of patients with cancer. The results of the questionnaire indicate that age, education and relationship have a significant impact on the assessment of quality of life among caregivers.