A pilot study of subjective well-being in colorectal cancer patients and their caregivers

Figures & data

Table 1 Background information

	Patients n=99, %	Caregivers n=88, %
Age, years (mean)
≥60	70	46
<60	30	54
Gender
Male	52	33
Female	48	77
Ethnicity
Caucasian	97	97
Non-Caucasian	3
Employment
Full-time	17	24
Part-time	2	12
Unemployed	2	11
Retired	62	38
Other	17	15
Education
University or higher	20	N/A
Less that university	80	N/A
Cancer stage
Stage 0	2
Stage 1	0
Stage 2	11
Stage 3	30
Stage 4	53
Remission status
In remission	34
Not in remission	66
Performance status
Fully active	39
Not fully active	61
Year of diagnosis
2010	39
Pre-2010	61

Abbreviation: N/A, not available.

Table 2 EQ5D questionnaire responses for patients and caregivers

Answers	Mobility, %	Self-care, %	Usual activities, %		Pain/distress, %	Anxiety/depression, %
EQ5D patients
Level 1	48	84	43		40	54
Level 2	52	14	50		51	41
Level 3	0	2	7		9	5
11111				16
EQ5D carers
Level 1	87	94	85		63	55
Level 2	17	6	15		31	41
Level 3	0	0	0		6	4
11111				40

Notes: For the EQ5D, respondents were asked to describe their health in terms of five dimensions (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain, and mood), each with three levels of severity (1=broadly none, 2=some and 3=extreme problems).

Table 3 Patient–caregiver comparisons (only significant variables shown)

	Life satisfaction	Day affect
Mean day affect	0.606
Life satisfaction		0.611
Problems with usual activities	–0.155
Frequency and intensity of thoughts around health		–0.265
Frequency and intensity of thoughts around family		0.133
Having at least one EQ5D dimension at level 3		–0.191
Responder being a caregiver	–0.039 (not significant)	–0.241

Table 4 Intrusive thoughts

	Patient, %	Caregiver, %
Thoughts around health
Many times, “happy” rated greater than or equal to “worried”	15.0	15.0
A few times, “happy” rated greater than or equal to “worried”	52.5	67.5
A few times, “worried” rated greater than “happy”	8.8	15.0
Many times, “worried” rated greater than “happy”	23.8	2.5
Thoughts around family
Many times, “happy” rated greater than or equal to “worried”	56.5	49.4
A few times, “happy” rated greater than or equal to “worried”	29.3	29.1
A few times, “worried” rated greater than “happy”	5.4	3.8
Many times, “worried” rated greater than “happy”	8.7	17.7

Table 5 EQ5D “tariff” models

	LS patient	DA patient	LS caregiver	DA caregiver	TTO patient
Constant	86.62	3.62	88.06	3.08	−0.134
Mobility 2	−0.022	0.024	−0.089	0.119	0.109
Mobility 3	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Self-care 2	−0.157	−0.129	−0.084	−0.201*	0.078
Self-care 3	−0.108	−0.007	N/A	N/A	−0.013
Usual activities 2	−0.170	−0.182*	−0.190	−0.169	−0.052
Usual activities 3	−0.347*	−0.363*	N/A	N/A	0.010
Pain/distress 2	0.041	0.002	−0.033	0.009	0.010
Pain/distress 3	−0.146	−0.288	0.274	−0.081	−0.450*
Anxiety/depression 2	−0.133	−0.235*	−0.410*	−0.487*	−0.167*
Anxiety/depression 3	−0.441*	−0.459*	−0.464*	−0.641*	−0.233*
Any 3	0.427*	0.347	−0.184	−0.378	0.050
R^2	0.160	0.286	0.472	0.358	0.199

Notes: Significance at 10% in bold and asterisk. For each parameter, levels of severity are 1: broadly none, 2: some, and 3: extreme problems.

Abbreviations: LS, life satisfaction; DA, day affect; TTO, time trade-off; N/A, not available.

Table 6 Summary of regression results (only significant variables shown)

	LS patient	DA Patient	LS caregiver	DA caregiver	TTO patient
Self-care 3	−0.204
Usual activities 3	−0.238
Pain/distress 3					−0.204
Anxiety/depression 2		−0.192	−0.232	−0.323
Anxiety/depression 3		−0.206	−0.379	−0.353	−0.206
Any 3	−0.347
Thoughts: health		−0.219	0.242	−0.326
Thoughts: family		−0.236			0.376
LS patient		0.540	0.251
DA patient	0.741				0.315
LS caregiver	0.196	−0.169		0.387
DA caregiver			0.392		0.205
Cancer stage IV	−0.061		−0.144
Cancer in remission	−0.152	0.154		0.182
R^2	0.582	0.684	0.625	0.730	0.460

Abbreviations: LS, life satisfaction; DA, Day affect; TTO, time trade-off.