Correlation Between Family Functioning and Caregiver Burden among Family Caregivers of Patients with Breast Cancer

摘要

Breast cancer is the most common chronic disease among Indonesian women. During treatment, patients require assistance with carrying out daily activities. Family members, as the basic unit, usually become caregivers for patients with breast cancer. As a caregiver, a family member must sometimes manage various problems, in particular, family functioning (Wozniak & Izycki, 2014). In addition, the changing or multiple roles the family member plays affect the caregiver burden for family caregivers. The purpose of this study is to investigate the correlation between family functioning and caregiver burden among family caregivers of patients with breast cancer who have been caregiving for at least 3 months. Family functioning is assessed using the Family Assessment Device (FAD) with (Epstein, Bishop, & Levin, 1978), and caregiver burden is assessed using the Zarit Interview Scale (ZBI) (Zarit, Reever, & Bach-Peterson, 1980). In this study, 35 participants are family caregivers for patients with breast cancer. This study found a significant negative correlation between family functioning and caregiver burden. That is, the higher FAD score, the lower ZBI score issued by a family caregiver of patients with breast cancer.