Coping Strategies for Self-perceived Burden Among Advanced Cancer Patients.

BACKGROUND: Self-perceived burden (SPB) causes stress and negatively impacts the quality of life and mental health of patients. It is important to identify effective coping methods to reduce SPB when supporting advanced cancer patients. OBJECTIVE: To qualitatively elucidate advanced cancer patients' strategies for coping with SPB. METHODS: Eleven participants with advanced cancer were recruited from 2 palliative care units. The data were collected through semistructured interviews and analyzed by content analysis. RESULTS: One of the coping strategies that advanced cancer patients used to reduce their SPB was "making individual efforts to deal with their own circumstances." This category included subcategories: "making proactive action," "expressing their gratitude verbally," "suppressing their feelings," "searching for positive meanings," and "avoiding thinking about the burden on their families." Another coping strategy used was "exploring the solutions with their family," which consisted of one subcategory and indicated an open dialogue between patients and their families to reach acceptable and mutual decisions about patient care. CONCLUSION: Nurses should not only support patients' efforts to tackle the situation by themselves, but also help the family as a whole to tackle problems together. By facilitating meaningful dialogue between family members, patients' feelings of SPB can be alleviated. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Nurses should facilitate dialogue between patients and their family members in order to help them discover solutions to reduce their SPB and to find positive meanings in the caregiving-receiving situation.

Self-perceived burden in patients with cancer: scale development and descriptive study.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop a Japanese version of the Self-Perceived Burden Scale (SPBS) for patients with cancer, to confirm its validity and reliability, and to elucidate the features of Self-Perceived Burden in Japanese patients with cancer. METHODS: Firstly, study team members carried out repeated translation and back translation. After that, scale development involved several phases including item development, construct validity testing, criterion-related validity testing, and reliability testing. A questionnaire that included the SPBS was distributed to 310 patients with cancer. Responses were received from 226 (72.9%) patients and final analysis was performed on data from 210 of these. RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis indicated that the 18-item version (α = 0.96) of the scale consisted of a single main factor. A 9-item abbreviation (α = 0.93) was therefore proposed. The convergent correlations of the SPBS with the FACIT-Sp and GHQ-12 scales showed significant correspondence. The construct of SPB was distinct from the "social and family well-being" FACIT-Sp subscale. Performance status, disease duration, living arrangement, and main caregiver were significantly related to the SPBS. CONCLUSION: We developed a Japanese version of the SPBS for cancer patients and demonstrated its validity and reliability, which makes it possible to study SPB in cancer patients in Japan. Our study revealed that cancer patients in Japan also feel SPB, in a way that relates specifically to their cultural background.