Perceived Mood, Health, and Burden in Female Mexican American Family Cancer Caregivers

Abstract

Female family caregivers of various global cultures provide basic care in health, social, emotional, and financial domains for family members with cancer and may sacrifice their own health to do so. To learn about role-related mood, health status self-perceptions, and burden of one cultural group, we used qualitative and quantitative approaches to study 34 Mexican American (MA) women who provided care for an ill family member with cancer. We report quantitative data on study variables and make comparisons with caregiver qualitative reports. Implications for health planning, service delivery, and future research with underserved, minority female caregivers are presented.

This project was funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institutes of Nursing Research, grant no. R15 NR008510-01A1, Mexican American: Family Caregiver Experience. The authors served as investigators. Dr. Marshall served as the biostatistician. Dr. Luna-Hollen contributed as a bilingual, bicultural consultant. The authors gratefully acknowledge Pat Bradley, DNS, RN, for her significant contributions to the successful completion of the research described in this article.

Notes

¹Correlations of variables with the same-set variate.

²Correlations of variables with the other-set variate.

∗Variables used in making profile interpretations.