This descriptive study was conducted to determine the relationship between the care burden, anxiety, and social support levels of the mothers who had children with cancer and affecting factors.
METHODS
This study was conducted with 43 mothers of children with cancer in a university hospital. Data were
collected by the Beck Anxiety Scale, the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI), and the Multidimensional Scale
of Perceived Social Support.
RESULTS
The mean age of the mothers was 37.46±9.67 old years and the duration of cancer diagnosis was 10.57±12.59
months. The primary caregivers of 83.7% of children were their mothers. It was determined that 76.7%
of mothers had a change in their social life after their children diagnosis. There was a positive correlation
between the mothers" Beck Anxiety Scale scores and the ZBI scores (r=0.508; p=0.01). There was a
statistically significant difference between the status of changes in mothers social life and Beck Anxiety
Scale (t=4,454; p<0.001) and the ZBI scores (t=3.259; p=0.003). The status of mothers receiving support in
household chores (t=0.864; p=0.018) affected their mean scores of ZBI scores.
CONCLUSION
In this study, as the anxiety level of the mothers increased, the burden of care increased, too. Furthermore,
the level of care burden was higher for the mothers who had no support in the household chores
and who had a change in social life after the diagnosis. The anxiety level of mothers who reported
changes in social life after diagnosis was also high.