Cancer family caregiver depression: are religion‐related variables important?. Issue 7 (11th August 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Williams, Anna‐leila; Dixon, Jane; Feinn, Richard; McCorkle, Ruth
• Is Part Of: Psycho-oncology. Volume 24:Issue 7(2015)
• Page Start: 825
• Page End: 831
• Publication Date: 2014-08-11
• Subjects: Cancer -- Psychological aspects -- Periodicals; Cancer -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Neoplasms -- psychology -- Periodicals; 616.9940019
• DOI: 10.1002/pon.3647
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1057-9249

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Abstract</title> <sec id="pon3647-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Objective</title> <p>Prevalence estimates for clinical depression among cancer family caregivers (CFC) range upwards to 39%. Research inconsistently reports risk for CFC depressive symptoms when evaluating age, gender, ethnicity, or length of time as caregiver. The discrepant findings, coupled with emerging literature indicating religiosity may mitigate depression in some populations, led us to investigate religion‐related variables to help predict CFC depressive symptoms.</p> </sec> <sec id="pon3647-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Methods</title> <p>We conducted a cross‐sectional study of 150 CFC. Explanatory variables included age, gender, spousal status, length of time as caregiver, attendance at religious services, and prayer. The outcome variable was the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale score.</p> </sec> <sec id="pon3647-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Results</title> <p>Compared with large national and state datasets, our sample has lower representation of individuals with no religious affiliation (10.7% vs. 16.1% national, <italic>p</italic> = 0.07 and 23.0% state, <italic>p</italic> = 0.001), higher rate of attendance at religious services (81.3% vs. 67.2% national, <italic>p</italic> < 0.001 and 30.0% state, <italic>p</italic> < 0.001), and higher rate of prayer (65.3% vs. 42.9% national, <italic>p</italic> < 0.001; no state data available). In unadjusted and adjusted models, prayer is not significantly associated with caregiver depressive symptoms or clinically significant depressive symptomology. Attendance at religious services is associated with depressive symptoms (<italic>p</italic> = 0.004) with an inversely linear trend (<italic>p</italic> = 0.002).</p> </sec> <sec id="pon3647-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusion</title> <p>The significant inverse association between attendance at religious services and depressive symptoms, despite no association between prayer and depressive symptoms, indicates that social or other factors may accompany attendance at religious services and contribute to the association. Clinicians can consider supporting a CFC's attendance at religious services as a potential preventive measure for depressive symptoms. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.</p> </sec> </abstract>