Care Burden of Family Caregivers of Elderly Relatives with Breast Cancer in the Asian Culture: Integrative Review

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer and a major cause of death in elderly women. In Asia, the roles and responsibilities of family caregivers of elderly relatives with breast cancer vary across cultural and social contexts, but the care burden and its impacts on caregivers’ quality of life have been reported globally. Therefore, this review aims to summarize existing evidence of the care burden and experiences of family caregivers caring for elderly relatives with breast cancer in Asian cultures. This integrative review used databases, including MEDLINE, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), and Scopus, to conduct a comprehensive search of all studies published in English between 1994 and 2016 in relation to the topic at hand, yielding 322 articles, eight of which met the eligibility criteria and were included in the review. Three domains of the care burden, including physical, psychological, and financial, were identified and reported as varying in degree across cultures. Caring for elderly patients with breast cancer in Asian cultures was found to be performed on passionate grounds involving love, sympathy, relationships, and attachments. The positive and negative experiences among family caregivers were found to be associated with cultural factors, including beliefs, social norms, traditional practices, and religion. A stronger family bond and sense of togetherness within the family were expressed as positive, whereas caring for the elderly was described as burdensome, or negative. While the caregiver role is perceived as integral to the Asian family caregiver’s life, they nonetheless experience physical, psychological, and financial burdens related to the care. Thus, the deep insight into the burden of family caregivers offered herein warrants the provision of appropriate support from health professionals to family caregivers