Caring ability of family caregivers of patients on cancer treatment: associated factors.

This was a cross-sectional survey, so it cannot show that patient age, schooling, partner status, or caregiving time caused the differences in caring ability. The sample was a convenience group of 132 caregivers of dependent patients at one public university hospital oncology service, so the results may not apply to other families, services, or countries. Caring ability was measured by caregivers' own answers on the CAI-BR, and the scale's internal consistency in this study was 0.60, which is low. No caregiver had completed a caregiver training course, so the study cannot say whether training or nurse-led support would improve caring ability. Patients were selected from chemotherapy and radiation therapy sectors and had to have some dependence, so it does not describe caregivers of patients without these treatment settings or dependence levels.

Do not read these associations as proof that a caregiver's schooling, partner status, or patient age causes caring ability, or that nurse-led training will improve it. This was a cross-sectional self-report survey, and no intervention was tested.