TY - JOUR
T1 - Trajectories of emotional functioning and experienced care of relatives in the last year of life of patients with advanced cancer
T2 - A longitudinal analysis of the eQuiPe study
AU - Ham, Laurien
AU - Fransen, Heidi P.
AU - Raijmakers, Natasja J.H.
AU - van den Beuken-van Everdingen, Marieke H.J.
AU - van den Borne, Ben
AU - Creemers, Geert Jan
AU - de Graeff, Alexander
AU - Hendriks, Mathijs P.
AU - de Jong, Wouter K.
AU - van Laarhoven, Hanneke
AU - van Leeuwen, Lobke
AU - van der Padt - Pruijsten, Annemieke
AU - Smilde, Tineke J.
AU - Stellingwerf, Margriet
AU - van Zuylen, Lia
AU - van de Poll - Franse, Lonneke V.
N1 - Funding Information:
The eQuiPe study is funded by the Roparun Foundation. Authorship: All authors made substantial contributions to this review. The data was collect by Laurien Ham. Laurien Ham analyzed the data and interpreted the data. All authors critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2023/12
Y1 - 2023/12
N2 - Objective: Advanced cancer has a major impact on both patients and their relatives. To allow for personalized support, it is important to recognize which relatives will experience a decline in emotional functioning during the patient's last year of life, when this decline will occur, and what factors are associated with it. This study aimed to examine the trajectory of emotional functioning of relatives during that time and the characteristics associated with changes in this trajectory. Methods: A prospective, longitudinal, multicenter, observational study in patients with advanced cancer and their relatives was conducted (eQuiPe). We analyzed relatives' changes in emotional functioning in the patient's last year using the EORTC QLQ-C30 and assessed associations with sociodemographic and care characteristics using multivariable mixed-effects analysis. Results: 409 relatives completed =1 questionnaires during the patient's last year of life. Mean age was 64 years, 61% were female and 75% were the patient's partner. During this year, mean emotional functioning declined significantly over time from 73.9 to 64.6 (p = 0.023, effect size = 0.43). The type of relationship between relatives and patients (p = 0.002), patient’ sleep problems (p = 0.033), and continuity of care (p = 0.002) were significantly associated with changes in emotional functioning. Conclusions: Relatives' emotional functioning declined during the patient's last year of life. Support for them, especially partners and relatives of patients with sleep problems, is important. Relatives who experienced more continuity of care had a less steep decline in emotional functioning.
AB - Objective: Advanced cancer has a major impact on both patients and their relatives. To allow for personalized support, it is important to recognize which relatives will experience a decline in emotional functioning during the patient's last year of life, when this decline will occur, and what factors are associated with it. This study aimed to examine the trajectory of emotional functioning of relatives during that time and the characteristics associated with changes in this trajectory. Methods: A prospective, longitudinal, multicenter, observational study in patients with advanced cancer and their relatives was conducted (eQuiPe). We analyzed relatives' changes in emotional functioning in the patient's last year using the EORTC QLQ-C30 and assessed associations with sociodemographic and care characteristics using multivariable mixed-effects analysis. Results: 409 relatives completed =1 questionnaires during the patient's last year of life. Mean age was 64 years, 61% were female and 75% were the patient's partner. During this year, mean emotional functioning declined significantly over time from 73.9 to 64.6 (p = 0.023, effect size = 0.43). The type of relationship between relatives and patients (p = 0.002), patient’ sleep problems (p = 0.033), and continuity of care (p = 0.002) were significantly associated with changes in emotional functioning. Conclusions: Relatives' emotional functioning declined during the patient's last year of life. Support for them, especially partners and relatives of patients with sleep problems, is important. Relatives who experienced more continuity of care had a less steep decline in emotional functioning.
KW - cancer
KW - death
KW - longitudinal
KW - oncology
KW - palliative care
KW - psycho-oncology
KW - quality of life
KW - relatives
U2 - 10.1002/pon.6233
DO - 10.1002/pon.6233
M3 - Article
SN - 1057-9249
VL - 32
SP - 1858
EP - 1866
JO - Psycho-Oncology
JF - Psycho-Oncology
IS - 12
ER -