Evaluation of fatigue level and coping attitudes of caregivers of geriatrik cancer patients

This study, was carried out as a descriptive study to evaluatıon of fatigue level and coping attitudes of 100 caregivers who gave care to geriatric cancer patients treated at Balcalı Hospital of Cukurova University between February-March 2017. The sample of the study consisted of geriatric illness caregivers and the sample was family members who were in accordance with the study criteria. The number of samples was calculated by power analysis. Data from the study; Questionnaire form was collected with questionary form, Piper Fatigue Scale and Measures of Coping Attitudes. Piper Fatigue Scale; Consists of four sub-dimensions and total fatigue score (0-10), and the fatigue level increases as the score increases. The Coping Attitudes Scale is composed of 15 sub-dimensions, and the high points to be taken from the sub-dimensions indicate that the tendency to cope is used more by the person. The obtained data were evaluated by computerized Anova, Shapiro Wilks, Tukey HSD post hoc test and Pearson correlation analysis. The average age of the caregivers was 48,1 ± 14.4, 50% of them were women, 35% were literate or primary school graduates, 53% were mothers care, 68% of caregivers shared the same home as the patient they were cared for, 50% had someone who was obliged to look after them, 58% had care for the patient 0-8 hours per day, 37 had a health problem due to the role of caring, and 65% were found to have been helped by others. The mean total fatigue score of the caregivers was 4,4 ± 2,4 and the most useful social support use (12,4 ± 2,5), emotional social support use (12,2 ± 2,3) and the 'plan making (12,8 ± 2,2 ) were found to be the most used subscales of the coping attitudes Scale. In the light of these results, it can be suggested that the level of fatigue and the coping status of geriatric cancer patients' caregivers may be advisable to support this situation by evaluating the situation of coping.