Religious Involvement, Depressive Symptoms, and Burden in Caregivers of Terminally Ill Patients.
Reiko Asano, Anela Kellogg, Dan Sulmasy and 2 others
PMID 33911059WHAT IT FOUND
Nearly half of caregivers of patients with ALS or advanced gastrointestinal cancer had a positive depression screen.
Negative religious coping was linked with depression; positive religious coping was not.
Key findings
01Nearly half of the caregivers had a positive depression screen (CESD-10 score above 10).
02Negative religious coping was associated with depression (p < 0.01), while positive religious coping and total religious coping were not associated with depression.
03Spouse caregivers reported higher depressive symptoms than non-spouse caregivers.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The analysis included 156 dyads from two academic medical centers, so it may not apply to other settings or patient groups. Only ALS and gastrointestinal cancer were studied, and most caregivers were female and White, which limits generalizability. The study was descriptive and associative; it cannot show whether negative religious coping caused depression or depression caused negative religious coping.
Declared interests
The parent trial was funded by NIH. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read positive religious coping as evidence that religion reduces caregiver depression. Positive and total religious coping were not associated with depression, and the study cannot show that negative religious coping causes depression.