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Caregivers’ satisfaction with cervical cancer care in Ethiopia

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Abstract

Background and purpose

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among African women, following breast cancer. Palliative care is among the standards of care in cancer management. While caregivers play key roles in palliative care, their satisfaction with the care influences treatment outcomes and patients’ quality of life. This study evaluated caregivers’ satisfaction with the care provided to patients with advanced cervical cancer.

Method

A cross-sectional evaluation of caregivers’ satisfaction with patient care was conducted at a tertiary hospital in Ethiopia. The study tool included the 20-item family satisfaction with advanced cancer care (FAMCARE) and caregiver stress index (CSI). Using binary logistic regression, we identified factors associated with caregivers’ satisfaction.

Result

A total of 360 caregivers were interviewed. Most of the caregivers were male (58.1%), below the age of 35 years (60.8%), and educated to the high school level or less (64.4%). The average FAMCARE score was 77.7 out of the maximum 100. High satisfaction was observed among subscales “availability of treatment and care” and “psychosocial care,” while low satisfaction was observed with “physical patient care” and “provision of information.” Caregivers’ stress and time dedicated to the caregiving were associated with caregivers’ satisfaction.

Conclusion

Overall, high satisfaction with advanced care at the tertiary hospital was documented. However, the caregivers also bore high burden of strain. Management of caregivers’ strain, prompt treatment of patients’ symptoms, and provision of adequate information to the caregivers could further improve caregivers’ satisfaction.

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Data availability

This study is part of the principal author’s PhD project at UNISA. The dataset collected and analysed in this study is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request and after UNISA grants permission.

Abbreviations

CSI:

Caregiver stress index

FAMCARE:

Family satisfaction with advanced cancer care

OR:

Odds ratio

UNISA:

University of South Africa

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the Radiotherapy Centre for permitting us to have data access and for facilitating the data collection process. We offer special thanks to Dr Wondemagegnehu Tigeneh and Sr Askale Yakob for their support through the protocol approval and data collection. We also thank all the study participants for their willingness to provide us with the necessary information.

Funding

The corresponding author and UNISA funded this research. UNISA provided a student bursary that covered data collectors’ payments and the cost of duplication of the questionnaire. The principal investigator covered other research expenses.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ethiopia Regional Learning Centre, University of South Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Tolcha Kebebew

  2. Department of Health Studies, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

    Annah Mosalo & Azwihangwisi Helen Mavhandu-Mudzusi

Authors
  1. Tolcha Kebebew
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  2. Annah Mosalo
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  3. Azwihangwisi Helen Mavhandu-Mudzusi
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Contributions

TK conducted research design, data collection, cleaning, and analysis. TK, AM, and AHM conducted the write-up of this research article. All authors have reviewed and approved the final version of this manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tolcha Kebebew.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

The Institutional Review Board of the College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, granted ethical approval for this research (PN-058/18/IM). All the methods performed were in accordance with the relevant guideline and regulations. The Research Ethics Committee, Department of Health Studies of the UNISA, also approved this research. In addition, the Radiotherapy Centre also provided written permission. The result of the study was organised using the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology guideline.

Consent to participate

All the study participants have received information regarding the research and provided informed consent before the interview.

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This is not applicable. This report does not include individuals’ information, images, or videos.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Kebebew, T., Mosalo, A. & Mavhandu-Mudzusi, A.H. Caregivers’ satisfaction with cervical cancer care in Ethiopia. Support Care Cancer 30, 7597–7603 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-022-07201-4

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