Caregiver Stress: Clinical Evaluation And Intervention Strategies For Caregiver Burden Prevention.

22Background: Caregivers (CGs) of advanced cancer patients (pts/ACPs) experience a higher incidence of medical and psychological conditions compared to general population. Methods: We conducted a prospective assessment of the caregiver burden (CGB) - a term describing the physical, psychological, emotional, social, and financial problems often experienced by CGs - to identify potential risk management strategies. We used the Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI), a multi-dimensional questionnaire with 5 subscales: Time Dependent, Developmental, Physical, Social, Emotional CGB, as a quantitative tool to investigate the level of stress of our pts CGs. Also, we used a semi-structured interview with 5 questions as a qualitative tool. Results: From Dec 2016 to Feb 2017 we administered the CBI and the interview to 37 CGs (F/M 31/6) of ACPs in 3 different settings: inpatient (9 CGs), outpatient (15 CGs), home-based (13 CGs). The quantitative data analysis showed that CGs had a variable emotional load, mostly of moder...