Fear of Cancer Recurrence Prevalence and Its Associated Factors Among Family Caregivers of Women With Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Xiaofan Bu, Ling Jiang, Doris Y P Leung
PMID 39994915WHAT IT FOUND
About 45% of spouses or partners of women with breast cancer had high fear of cancer recurrence.
Low resilience, poor couple communication, social constraints and protective buffering were linked to higher fear.
Key findings
01Pooled analysis of five studies found 45% of caregivers had clinically significant fear of cancer recurrence, with individual study rates ranging from 19% to 64.95%.
02Four caregiver-related factors had moderate evidence: low caregiver resilience, high social constraints, high protective buffering and insufficient couple communication were linked to higher caregiver fear.
03The findings mainly apply to spouses or partners, because almost all included caregivers were partners or spouses and only one study included other caregivers.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The review combined prevalence estimates from only five studies, and publication bias was not assessed because there were too few studies. The pooled prevalence varied widely across studies, from 19% to 64.95%, and the studies differed substantially. The included studies used different fear-of-recurrence measures, including some unvalidated measures, so direct comparison was limited. Nearly all caregivers were spouses or partners, so the findings may not apply to other family members, friends or neighbours. Most evidence for associated factors was limited or conflicting; only a few factors had moderate evidence. The studies were observational, so they show associations but cannot prove that any factor caused higher fear. Only studies from China, the United States and Germany were included.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that improving resilience, communication, social constraints or protective buffering will lower caregiver fear. These were associations in observational studies, and many factors had limited or conflicting evidence.