Quality of Life and Depression of Korean American Cancer Patients and Their Family Caregivers.

Abstract

Purpose: Despite the high cancer incidence and mortality among Korean Americans, little is known about their quality of life (QOL) and depression after a cancer diagnosis. The purpose of this dissertation was to describe the quality of life and depression in Korean American cancer patients and their family caregivers and to examine factors related to these outcomes. The study was guided by socio-cultural stress coping theoretical framework. Methods: Data were collected from Korean American cancer patients and one of their family caregivers living in Midwest (N=60 dyads). Matched t-tests and one-sample t-tests were used to examine differences between patients and caregivers and comparative samples in other studies. Multiple regression was used to examine predictors among selected variables to QOL and depression. Results: The review of existing literature indicated that the key variables related to QOL and depression were social support, communication, and acculturation. The descriptive study found no differences between patients and caregivers on selected variables. Patients had better overall QOL than other groups of cancer patients but family caregivers had lower overall QOL than other groups of family caregivers of cancer patients. From multiple regression analyses, higher social support and less negative appraisal of illness predicted better overall QOL in patients. Less negative appraisal of illness also predicted less depression among patients. Older age, endorsing more modern values, and less traditional Korean values predicted better overall QOL in caregivers. Furthermore, having higher modern values also predicted less depression among family caregivers. Conclusion: Based on the research findings, clinicians need to be more culturally sensitive to the needs of Korean American cancer patients and their family caregivers. Health professionals need to be aware that somatic complaints may be a sign of depression. Collaborating with ethnic community agencies that provide Koreans with assistance may help to improve patients’ and caregivers’ sources of formal and informal social support. Future research needs to focus on development of interventions that will improve patient’s positive perception of the illness and assist their caregivers to gain more self-reliance, autonomy, and confidence which will help to increase their QOL and lower their incidence of depression.