Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter to the Editor
  • Published:

Caregivers’ quality of life after blood and marrow transplantation: a qualitative study

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 49, pages 1234–1236 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

A sizable literature has documented the challenges of providing care to a family member with cancer, although fewer studies have reported on carers of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) recipients. Existing studies of HCT caregivers suggest that they are at risk of distress. For example, prior to HCT, caregivers report significantly higher levels of anxiety, traumatic stress, and insomnia than population norms.1,2 Several years after transplant, risk of depression among spouses of HCT recipients is 3.5 times greater than that of similar peers.3 Spouses of HCT recipients also report less social support, greater marital dissatisfaction, greater loneliness and less spiritual well-being than their peers.3 In qualitative interviews of HCT recipients and spouses, spouses were more likely than patients to report negative life changes as the result of transplant.4

The goal of the current study was to qualitatively examine post-HCT quality of life from the caregiver’s perspective. As part of a larger qualitative study of patient education regarding quality of life after allogeneic HCT, patients and caregivers were recruited from a single institution to participate in separate focus groups. At this institution, caregivers are required to attend a class regarding how to care for an allogeneic HCT recipient. Caregiver support groups are available as well. Results of the patient focus groups have been reported previously.5 Caregivers were asked about their quality of life and their perceptions of the patient’s quality of life, with a focus on how the transplant team could better prepare future caregivers for life after transplant. As the study was exploratory in nature, there were no a priori hypotheses.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Simoneau TL, Mikulich-Gilbertson SK, Natvig C, Kilbourn K, Spradley J, Grzywa-Cobb R et al. Elevated peri-transplant distress in caregivers of allogeneic blood or marrow transplant patients. Psycho-oncology 2013; 22: 2064–2070.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Siston AK, List MA, Daugherty CK, Banik DM, Menke C, Cornetta K et al. Psychosocial adjustment of patients and caregivers prior to allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 2001; 27: 1181–1188.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Bishop MM, Beaumont JL, Hahn EA, Cella D, Andrykowski MA, Brady MJ et al. Late effects of cancer and hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation on spouses or partners compared with survivors and survivor-matched controls. J Clin Oncol 2007; 25: 1403–1411.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Bishop MM, Curbow BA, Springer SH, Lee JA, Wingard JR . Comparison of lasting life changes after cancer and BMT: perspectives of long-term survivors and spouses. Psycho-oncology 2011; 20: 926–934.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Jim HS, Quinn GP, Gwede CK, Cases MG, Barata A, Cessna J et al. Patient education in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant: what patients wish they had known about quality of life. Bone Marrow Transplant 2014; 49: 299–303.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Langer SL, Kelly TH, Storer BE, Hall SP, Lucas HG, Syrjala KL . Expressive talking among caregivers of hematopoietic stem cell transplant survivors: acceptability and concurrent subjective, objective, and physiologic indicators of emotion. J Psychosocial Oncol 2012; 30: 294–315.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Kim Y, Kashy DA, Spillers RL, Evans TV . Needs assessment of family caregivers of cancer survivors: three cohorts comparison. Psycho-oncology 2010; 19: 573–582.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Northouse LL, Katapodi MC, Song L, Zhang L, Mood DW . Interventions with family caregivers of cancer patients: meta-analysis of randomized trials. CA Cancer J Clin 2010; 60: 317–339.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by NIH K07-CA138499 (PI: Jim), American Cancer Society MRSG-11-149-01-LIB (PI: Pidala) and the Moffitt Cancer Center Foundation. We wish to acknowledge the Moffitt Survey Methods Core for their assistance with data management.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Outcomes and Behavior Department, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL, USA

    H S L Jim, G P Quinn, A Barata, M Cases, B Gonzalez, L Gonzalez, A Koskan & F Montiel-Ishino

  2. Psychiatry and Legal Medicine PhD Program, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    A Barata

  3. Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

    J Cessna

  4. Blood and Marrow Transplant Department, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL, USA

    J Pidala

Authors
  1. H S L Jim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. G P Quinn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. A Barata
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. M Cases
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. J Cessna
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. B Gonzalez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. L Gonzalez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. A Koskan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. F Montiel-Ishino
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. J Pidala
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to H S L Jim.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Jim, H., Quinn, G., Barata, A. et al. Caregivers’ quality of life after blood and marrow transplantation: a qualitative study. Bone Marrow Transplant 49, 1234–1236 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2014.118

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2014.118

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links