Cancer Caregivers Information Needs and Resource Preferences

This study sought to characterize the need for information about personal psychosocial care, providing direct care, and managing care among cancer caregivers and to explore preferred resources for caregiving information. Data come from cross-sectional telephone interviews of 1,247 family caregivers, which included 104 cancer caregivers. A majority of cancer caregivers expressed one or more information need for each of the three content categories. Four out of ten caregivers expressed needing information about managing physical and emotional stress. A significantly higher percentage of male caregivers reported needing more information pertinent to providing direct care than females. Heightened objective burden was significantly associated with caregivers preferring to receive information from health professionals than informal sources (e.g., Internet), while the opposite was found among caregivers with lower objective burden. These findings suggest that specific types of information and resources may be most relevant to specific subgroups of cancer caregivers.