Effectiveness of Multicomponent Intervention on Quality of Life of Family Caregivers of Cancer Patients

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to determine the effectiveness of the multicomponent intervention on Quality of life (QOL) of family caregivers of cancer patients. METHODOLOGY: A Quasi-experimental study with pre and post-test measures was conducted among 200 caregivers of cancer patients selected by convenient sampling technique. The experimental group received the intervention, and no intervention was given for the control group during the study period. The data were collected from family members looking after the cancer patients diagnosed with breast/head & neck cancers and who were in the third and fourth stages of cancer. After the pre-test, provided multicomponent intervention (Pranayama, yogic relaxation, counselling and Education) and a post-test was conducted at the first month & third month. The obtained data were analysed and inferred using descriptive and inferential statistics to compare the outcomes among the groups. RESULT: Most of the caregivers belong to the age group of 31 to 40 years in the intervention group (31%) and in the control group (35%), 31% of them had their education up to a primary level in both the groups and most of the caregivers were spouses (49%). Regarding the QOL of family members, improvement was noted from baseline 66.66 to 126.82 (3 months) among the intervention group, and in the control group, mean QOL enhanced from 59.77 to 81.97. Repeated measure ANOVA was computed to analyse difference within and between the groups and it showed that the intervention program was efficacious in enhancing the QOL of family caregivers of cancer patients (F (1, 191) =639.02, p=.001). CONCLUSION: Nurses play a vibrant role in improving the Quality of life of family members of cancer patients since they are mostly involved in providing care. Health care system must ensure that the family members who provide care to the cancer patients receive appropriate teaching programmes on reducing their burden.