RESUMO
Cancer has been the leading cause of death in this country and produces high levels of stress not only in the patients themselves but also in their families. Caregiving during serious illness is a new experience for many family caregivers and social support and coping strategies have been found to reduce unfavorable health outcomes to stressful events such as cancer. The purpose of this investigation was to identify the relationship of caregiving stress, coping methods, social support, and health in caregivers of patients with cancer according to the phases of cancer illness. The subjects were 92 primary cargivers of cancer patients based on their phases of illness that consisted of 1st (initial) stage, 2nd (metastatic or recurring) stage, 3rd (terminal) stage recruited from two general hospitals in Seoul and Choongnam. The mean age of subjects was 39.1 years and 64.1% of subjects were female and 72.8% were married. The relationships to the patient were children(50%) or spouses (45.7%). According as the phase of illness progressed, caregiver's stress rose higher and their health got worse but coping methods and social support did not show a significant change. In the 1st stage the major predictors for the health of caregivers were family network support(R2=0.261, p=0.003) and the stress of the caregivers (R2=0.168, P=0.007). In the 2nd stage the most important predictor for the health of the caregivers was the stress of the caregivers (R2=0.483, P=0.000). Also in the 3rd stage the main predictor for health was the stress of the caregivers (R2=0.381, p=0.006). A better understanding of the stress process in family caregivers is needed so that nurses can provide family-centered care, taking into account caregiver, as well as patient, well-being.