Unsung Heroes of Cancer Care: Loneliness, Social Support, and Quality of Life in Informal Cancer Caregivers During COVID-19 Pandemic
Received 06 Dec, 2021 |
Accepted 07 Oct, 2022 |
Published 30 Jun, 2023 |
COVID-19 has caused an anomalous disruption globally; impacting vulnerable pre-existing health condition groups, particularly cancer patients and their caregivers. This research investigated informal cancer caregivers’ loneliness, social support, and quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic. A mixed method design was used. In the quantitative phase, a sample of 35 informal cancer caregivers (21 men and 14 women) was recruited via snowball sampling from Pakistan. Participants were requested to fill a basic demographic questionnaire, UCLA Loneliness Scale Version 3 (Russell, 1996), The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet et al., 1988), and The CareGiver Oncology Quality of Life Questionnaire (Minaya et al., 2012) via Google Forms. Quantitative results revealed a significant negative correlation between loneliness and social support as well as loneliness and quality of life. Social support was found to have a significant positive relationship with quality of life. Nonsignificant gender differences were found in the variables. In the qualitative phase, 4 consenting participants (2 men and 2 women) were interviewed telephonically via a semi-structured interview to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on informal caregivers’ caregiving experiences. Thematic analysis highlighted five themes including rewards, patient facilitation, detriments of caregiving as well as COVID-19 specific caregiving stressors, and obstacles of caregiving. Implications of the results pertaining to informal caregivers, patients, and healthcare in COVID-19 pandemic are discussed.
How to Cite this paper?
APA-7 Style
Butt,
S.S., Khalid,
R. (2023). Unsung Heroes of Cancer Care: Loneliness, Social Support, and Quality of Life in Informal Cancer Caregivers During COVID-19 Pandemic
. Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research, 38(2), 207-236. https://doi.org/10.33824/PJPR.2023.38.2.13
ACS Style
Butt,
S.S.; Khalid,
R. Unsung Heroes of Cancer Care: Loneliness, Social Support, and Quality of Life in Informal Cancer Caregivers During COVID-19 Pandemic
. Pak. J. Psychol. Res 2023, 38, 207-236. https://doi.org/10.33824/PJPR.2023.38.2.13
AMA Style
Butt
SS, Khalid
R. Unsung Heroes of Cancer Care: Loneliness, Social Support, and Quality of Life in Informal Cancer Caregivers During COVID-19 Pandemic
. Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research. 2023; 38(2): 207-236. https://doi.org/10.33824/PJPR.2023.38.2.13
Chicago/Turabian Style
Butt, Sijil, Shahbaz, and Ruhi Khalid.
2023. "Unsung Heroes of Cancer Care: Loneliness, Social Support, and Quality of Life in Informal Cancer Caregivers During COVID-19 Pandemic
" Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research 38, no. 2: 207-236. https://doi.org/10.33824/PJPR.2023.38.2.13
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.