Abstract:
Modern medical science advances can improve cancer treatment. However,
cancer is invasive and uncurable in many patients. Its increasing prevalence is due to
working life styles, the changing social and cultural environment, and urban growth.
Cancer causes suffering and affects and threatens patients,their families and the wider
society: it is a public health problem and an obstacle to social and economic development.
It,s treatment is more costly and time consuming than for general patients. Therefore, the
family caregiver is important and essential to the care of cancer patients: many may also
be greatly stressed.
The purposes of the study were to examine family caregivers’ stress coping
behaviors for metastasis cancer patient care and the factors related to the family
caregivers’ behaviors. The subjects in the study were family caregivers of metastasis
cancer patients at the outpatient unit of the National Cancer Institute between the first of
February and the first of April 2004. The caregivers' characteristics of helping
relationship and blood or legal relationship were considered and consents were obtained.
The purposive sampling method was applied to select 270 subjects. The qualities of these
tools were exmined for their validity, discrimination power and reliability. Quantitative
analysis was used base on statistics, percentage, means, standard deviation and chisquare.
A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the research data. The
findings indicated that most of the family caregivers (74.80%) used problem-focus stress
coping behaviors. Most of them were relatives, with good mental health, holding the 30
Baht golden health card with high social support. The relation of the independent
variables and the stress coping behavior was also studied. It revealed that the relationship
of the family caregiver and the patient, the health insurance, family caregivers' stress
levels, health status, and the available social support was statistically significant at 0.01
and affected family caregivers' coping behaviors.
This study suggests that the government should continue promoting the policy of
the universal health insurance coverage in response to the people's needs, including the
advice on the rights. The National Cancer Institute should offer family caregivers peer
group counseling in order to share the experiences of stress release. Teaching and
learning materials in relation to the stress coping behaviors are needed such as the
meditation, yoga, etc. The support of family members in the from of talking, providing
advice, and counseling will also reduce the family caregivers' stress.The research
implication is needed the study in other regional cancer institutes for the macro view. The
researcher assistance is essential because the service time period of the National Cancer
Institute is limited only in the morning. As a result, the limited time of data collection was
seen