Skip to main content
Log in

Loss of lifestyle: health behaviour and weight changes after becoming a caregiver of a family member diagnosed with ovarian cancer

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Supportive Care in Cancer Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Little is known about how caring for someone affects the caregiver's health behaviours. We explore behaviour changes and their determinants in caregivers of women with ovarian cancer.

Methods

Caregivers of 101 women with ovarian cancer completed a questionnaire 1.5–6 years after their family member's cancer diagnosis, providing information about their current health behaviours, height, weight and changes in these compared with pre-diagnosis. Information about the impact of ovarian cancer, other stressful events and distress was also collected for patients and caregivers. Logistic regression was used to determine characteristics associated with negative changes.

Results

Half (54%) of caregivers did not meet Australian physical activity guidelines, 71% were overweight/obese, 40% ate <2 serves of fruit and 80% <5 serves of vegetables/day, 37% consumed >2 alcoholic drinks/occasion and 10% were smokers. Overall, 56% reported ≥1 negative change since their family member’s diagnosis, with many decreasing their physical activity (42%) and/or gaining weight (35%). Caregivers were more likely to report negative changes if they had only school-level education (OR 3.0, 95%CI 1.1–8.4), they were unable to carry out usual daily activities due to caregiving (OR 2.0, 95%CI 0.7–5.4), they were clinically distressed (OR 3.4, 95%CI 1.1–10.1) or caring for a woman whose disease impacted on her usual daily activities (OR 4.3, 95%CI 1.4–13.2).

Conclusions

Many caregivers of women with ovarian cancer do not meet Australian health guidelines and more than half describe negative changes after becoming a caregiver. More attention should be given to cancer caregivers with high physical and emotional demands.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Dixon H, Chapman K, Hodge A, Slevin T (2005) Body weight, nutrition, alcohol and physical activity: key messages for The Cancer Council Australia. The Cancer Council Australia, Sydney

    Google Scholar 

  2. Girgis A, Lambert S (2009) Caregivers of cancer survivors: the state of the field. Cancer Forum 33

  3. Kim Y, Schulz R (2008) Family caregivers’ strains: comparative analysis of cancer caregiving with dementia, diabetes, and frail elderly caregiving. J Aging Health 20:483–503

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Baumgarten M, Hanley JA, Infante-Rivard C, Battista RN, Becker R, Gauthier S (1994) Health of family members caring for elderly persons with dementia. A longitudinal study. Ann Intern Med 120:126–132

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Ergh TC, Hanks RA, Rapport LJ, Coleman RD (2003) Social support moderates caregiver life satisfaction following traumatic brain injury. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 25:1090–1101

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Janda M, Steginga S, Dunn J, Langbecker D, Walker D, Eakin E (2008) Unmet supportive care needs and interest in services among patients with a brain tumour and their carers. Patient Educ Couns 71:251–258

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Kiecolt-Glaser JK, Dura JR, Speicher CE, Trask OJ, Glaser R (1991) Spousal caregivers of dementia victims: longitudinal changes in immunity and health. Psychosom Med 53:345–362

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Lee S, Colditz GA, Berkman LF, Kawachi I (2003) Caregiving and risk of coronary heart disease in U.S. women: a prospective study. Am J Prev Med 24:113–119

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. King AC, Oka RK, Young DR (1994) Ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate responses to the stress of work and caregiving in older women. J Gerontol 49:M239–M245

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Schulz R, Beach SR (1999) Caregiving as a risk factor for mortality: the Caregiver Health Effects Study. JAMA 282:2215–2219

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Lederberg M (1998) The family of the cancer patient. In: Holland J (ed) Psychooncology. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  12. Scharlach AE, Midanik LT, Runkle MC, Soghikian K (1997) Health practices of adults with elder care responsibilities. Prev Med 26:155–161

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Burton LC, Newsom JT, Schulz R, Hirsch CH, German PS (1997) Preventive health behaviors among spousal caregivers. Prev Med 26:162–169

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Acton GJ (2002) Health-promoting self-care in family caregivers. West J Nurs Res 24:73–86

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Lockwood-Rayermann S (2006) Survivorship issues in ovarian cancer: a review. Oncol Nurs Forum 33:553–562

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Merritt MA, Green ALC, Nagle CM, Webb PM (2008) Talcum powder, chronic pelvic inflammation and NSAIDs in relation to risk of epithelial ovarian cancer. Int J Cancer 122:170–176

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Tothill RW, Tinker AV, George J, Brown R, Fox SB, Lade S, Johnson DS, Trivett MK, Etemadmoghadam D, Locandro B, Traficante N, Fereday S, Hung JA, Chiew Y-E, Haviv I, Gertig D, DeFazio A, Bowtell DDL (2008) Novel molecular subtypes of serous and endometrioid ovarian cancer linked to clinical outcome. Clin Cancer Res 14:5198–5208

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Jordan SJ, Green ALC, Whiteman DC, Moore SP, Bain CJ, Gertig DM, Webb PM (2008) Serous ovarian, fallopian tube and primary peritoneal cancers: a comparative epidemiological analysis. Int J Cancer 122:1598–1603

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Basen-Engquist K, Bodurka-Bevers D, Fitzgerald M, Webster K, Cella D, Hu S, Gershenson D (2001) Reliability and validity of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Ovarian. J Clin Oncol 19:1809–1817

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Zigmond AS, Snaith RP (1983) The hospital anxiety and depression scale. Acta Psychiatr Scand 67:361–370

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2003) The active Australia survey: a guide and manual for implementation, analysis and reporting. AIHW, Canberra

    Google Scholar 

  22. Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care (1999) National physical activity guidelines for australians. Australian Government, Canberra

    Google Scholar 

  23. National Health and Medical Research Council (2004) Clinical practice guidelines for the management of overweight and obesity in adults. Australian Government, Canberra

    Google Scholar 

  24. Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006) National Health Survey: Summary of Results. ABS, City

  25. Cashel K, Jeffreson S (1995) The core food groups. Australian Government, Canberra

    Google Scholar 

  26. National Health and Medical Research Council (2009) Australian guidelines to reduce health risks from drinking alcohol. Australian Government, Canberra

    Google Scholar 

  27. Demark-Wahnefried W, Aziz NM, Rowland JH, Pinto BM (2005) Riding the crest of the teachable moment: promoting long-term health after the diagnosis of cancer. J Clin Oncol 23:5814–5830

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Foot G, Sanson-Fisher R (1995) Measuring the unmet needs of people living with cancer. Cancer Forum 19:131–135

    Google Scholar 

  29. Colerick E, George L (1986) Predictors of institutionalization among caregivers of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. J Am Geriatr Soc 34:493–498

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Australian Bureau of Statistics (2009) 2007–2008 National health survey: summary of results. Australian Government, Canberra

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

AOCS-QoL was funded by the Cancer Councils of New South Wales and Queensland. Vanessa Beesley was funded by an NHMRC post-doctoral award, Penelope Webb by an NHMRC Research Fellowship and Melanie Price by a Research Fellowship from the School of Psychology at The University of Sydney. We thank Lynley Aldridge, Diana Grivas, Naomi McGowan and Rebekah Cicero for their help with the data tracking and management within the concurrent studies and all the women and their caregivers who gave their time to participate. We also acknowledge the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, the Cancer Council Tasmania, the Cancer Foundation of Western Australia and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia for their AOCS funding as well as support from the Australian state-based Cancer Registries, collaborating institutions and investigators represented within the AOCS group listed at www.aocstudy.org.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Consortia

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vanessa L. Beesley.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Beesley, V.L., Price, M.A., Webb, P.M. et al. Loss of lifestyle: health behaviour and weight changes after becoming a caregiver of a family member diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Support Care Cancer 19, 1949–1956 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-010-1035-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-010-1035-2

Keywords

Navigation