Resilience Mediates the Impact of Caregiver Burden on Quality of Life Among Informal Caregivers of Gastrointestinal Cancer Patients Receiving Adjuvant Chemotherapy: A Cross-sectional Study

Purpose: The unclear relationships between caregiver burden, resilience, and quality of life among informal caregivers of patients with Gastrointestinal cancer receiving adjuvant chemotherapy prompted this study. The objective was to explore these relationships and investigate the mediating role of resilience.

Methods: Between June 2022 and March 2023, totally 206 informal caregivers, who were responsible for patients undergoing postoperative chemotherapy for Gastrointestinal cancer in a public hospital, participated in this study. They completed standardized questionnaires assessing demographic information, caregiver burden, resilience, and quality of life. We performed structural equation modeling with Amos 26.0 to validate the hypothesized relationship between resilience, caregiver burden, and quality of life, and used the bootstrapping method to detect resilience's mediating effect.

Results: Moderate caregiver burden existed for caregivers (42.11 ± 12.82), and caregivers reported lower quality of life, with physical health scores of 44.92 ± 10.61 and mental health scores of 45.62 ± 11.91. Moreover, caregiver burden exhibited a negative predictive relationship with mental health (rs = -0.329, P < 0.01), physical health (rs = -0.236, P < 0.01) and resilience (rs = -0.393, P < 0.01). The structural equation modeling showed that resilience acted as a crucial role in mediating the adverse impact of caregiver burden on mental health (β = -0.210, P < 0.001), and the tested model matches the data very well.

Conclusions: Regarding informal caregivers of patients undergoing chemotherapy for Gastrointestinal cancer, their caregiving burden negatively affects quality of life, while resilience partially mediates the impact of caregiving burden on mental health.