Family Members of Cancer Patients in Korea Are at an Increased Risk of Medically Diagnosed Depression
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVES: Family members are often cancer patients' primary source of social and emotional support and make a major contribution to how well patients manage their illness. We compared the prevalence of depression in the family members of cancer patients and the general population. METHODS: This study used the data from the fourth, fifth, and sixth rounds of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The variable of interest was the presence of a cohabitating cancer patient in the family and the dependent variable was the presence of diagnosed depression. RESULTS: The odds of having medically diagnosed depression in those with a cohabitating cancer patient in the family were significantly higher than among those who did not have cancer patients in their families (odds ratio [OR], 1.56; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.12 to 2.17; p=0.009). The OR for females was 1.59, and this increase was statistically significant (95% CI, 1.09 to 2.31; p=0.02). CONCLUSIONS: We need to invest more effort into diagnosing and managing depression in the family members of cancer patients. This will have an impact both on their quality of life and on the well-being of patients, as supporters and caregivers play an instrumental role in helping patients manage their illness.
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15 studies described caregivers as mostly spouses or daughters/sons of patients with cancer, usually sharing the same home.
“As for family bonds, 15 studies described these caregivers as being mostly spouses or daughters/sons of the patients with cancer, usually sharing the same home [22,23,25,26,27,28,30,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39].”
From Quality of Life in Caregivers of Cancer Patients: A Literature Review (2023) · cites this paper as [28]
The Methods section defines the studied family members as people sharing a household with a cancer patient, supporting the cohabitation part of the claim. It does not establish that these family members were mostly spouses or sons and daughters, or that all provided care; the Discussion says the study did not measure caregiver burden and cites another study when describing traditional caregivers’ family relationships in Korea. (LLM, conf=0.87)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredTwo studies in the review described a larger number of male caregivers than female caregivers.
“However, there were two studies that described a larger number of male caregivers with respect to women [28,31].”
From Quality of Life in Caregivers of Cancer Patients: A Literature Review (2023) · cites this paper as [28]
The Results report that, among family members of cancer patients, the proportion of males was approximately 15.2% higher than the proportion of females. However, the Methods define this group by shared household ID, not by whether members provided care, so the paper does not establish that male caregivers outnumbered female caregivers. This citation is one of the two studies named in the citing sentence; it need not itself establish the count of studies. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredTen studies did not describe average age.
“However, it must be highlighted that 10 studies did not describe average age [22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31].”
From Quality of Life in Caregivers of Cancer Patients: A Literature Review (2023) · cites this paper as [28]
26 studies alluded to emotional and psychological problems suffered by caregivers, highlighting anxiety, depression, feelings of grief and distress, and high levels of stress.
“At an emotional level, 26 studies [22,23,25,26,27,28,29,30,33,34,35,36,38,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52] alluded to the emotional and psychological problems suffered by caregivers, highlighting anxiety, depression, feelings of grief and distress, and high levels of stress.”
From Quality of Life in Caregivers of Cancer Patients: A Literature Review (2023) · cites this paper as [28]
10 studies emphasized the need of enhancing social support by reinforcing support networks and facilitating access to support groups and associations.
“Among the strategies described, 10 studies [28,29,31,32,36,39,41,50,54,57] emphasized the need of enhancing social support by means of reinforcing the support networks and facilitating access to support groups and associations.”
From Quality of Life in Caregivers of Cancer Patients: A Literature Review (2023) · cites this paper as [28]
The Introduction describes family caregivers as a source of social and emotional support for patients, and the Discussion calls for better diagnosis and management of depression among family members. Neither passage recommends reinforcing support networks or facilitating access to support groups and associations. Searches for those strategies found no supporting passage in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.75)
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- Authors
- Cho, Y., Jeon, Y., Jang, S.-I., & Park, E.-C.
- Affiliations
- Yonsei University (KR)
- Corresponding author
- Park, Eun-Cheol
- Venue
- Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
- Published
- 2018-03-31
- Volume
- 51
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 100-108
- ISSN
- 1975-8375 (ISSN-L)
- 2233-4521
- PMC
- PMC5897230
- OpenAlex
- W2794700077
- Cited by
- 13
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 0.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- YUHSpace (Yonsei University Medical Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Family Support in Illness
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Pharmacy › Nursing care and research
- Keywords
- relatives of cancer patients, depression, caregiver burden, cohabitation, depression prevalence, sex differences, Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, family caregivers
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Depression, Family, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Neoplasms, Nutrition Surveys, Quality of Life, Sex Factors, Stress, Psychological, Odds Ratio, Young Adult, Republic of Korea
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