Cancer Hospice Caregivers' Self-care Behaviors: The Role of Caregiving Tasks, Burden, and Mental Health.

The sample was small at 86 caregivers and participants were not randomly selected, so results may not generalise. The design was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that mental health or ADL support caused self-care problems. There was no non-caregiver comparison group. The sample was mostly White and female, and male findings should be read with caution because men were a smaller group. Self-care was measured with six yes/no items and self-report, so other forms of self-care or caregiving help may have been missed. Work, physical limitations, illness severity, and caregiving at illness onset were not assessed, and cancer diagnoses varied.

The article is listed as supported by NIH extramural research funding. No author conflict-of-interest statement or sponsor role is reported.

Do not conclude that reducing caregiving burden will improve caregiver self-care. Burden was not associated with self-care, and the cross-sectional design cannot show cause.