Caregiver Burden and Unmet Patient Needs

Four-hundred eighty-three patients with cancer and their informal caregivers were studied. Patients reported on met and unmet needs in personal care activities (bathing and dressing), instrumental activities (heavy and light housekeeping, cooking, shopping), transportation (medical and general), and home health care (health/treatment assistance). A minority (18.9%) experienced an unmet need. Hierarchical logistic regression was used to identify significant predictors of any unmet need. Patients were more likely to report any unmet needs when their illness/treatment resulted in restricted activity days, when their financial resources were reduced enough for them to apply for Medicaid or Public Assistance, or when their caregivers were not their spouses. Although in general, the likelihood of an unmet need decreased as the number of domains of assistance provided by the caregiver increased, if that care was associated with a high level of burden, the odds of a patient reporting an unmet need actually increased.