Unsung Heroes of Cancer Care: Loneliness, Social Support, and Quality of Life in Informal Cancer Caregivers During COVID-19 Pandemic

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.