Greek Caregivers of Chronically Ill Patients Struggling in Everyday Life.

BACKGROUND: Caregivers of chronically ill geriatric patients face several problems throughout the disease progression of the patients under their care. This is a prospective crosssectional study conducted from September 2017 to September 2018, including 130 caregivers of geriatric patients from Attica, Greece. OBJECTIVES: This study investigates caregivers' anxiety, perception of changes in their lives, and quality of life. METHODS: The questionnaires administered were the revised Bakas Caregiving Outcomes Scale (rBCOS), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and the Linear Analogue Scale Assessment (LASA). RESULTS: Influencing factors associated with rBCOS, STAI and LASA were care timespan and energy levels. Only the State Anxiety Scale and the Patient-caregiver Relationship rBCOS questionnaire seemed to be affected by a cancer diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Our findings revealed that anxiety, low quality of life, and perception of changes in the lives of caregivers are the underlying factors. Significant factors were time spent caring for the patient, the status of their relationship, the diagnosis, especially in life-threatening and life-limiting diseases, and the caregivers' energy levels. These results are important in order to comprehend the lives of caregivers and assess by what means could the healthcare system and society further assist them.

Herth Hope Index: A Psychometric Evaluation Study within a Sample of Greek Patients with Cancer.

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to develop the Greek version of the Herth Hope Index (HHI) and assess its psychometric properties to a palliative care patient sample, using a cross-sectional design. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The HHI was translated into Greek (HHI-Gr) using the 'forward-backward' procedure. It was administered to 130 eligible cancer patients, while for the stability of patients' responses, 40 of these patients completed the HHI-Gr 3 days later. Along with the HHI-Gr, patients also completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS). The HHI-Gr internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's a), stability (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]), factor structure (factor analysis) and convergent validity (correlation with the HADS and the BHS questionnaires) were examined using the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status. RESULTS: The HHI-Gr yielded a one-factor model and a Cronbach alpha (0.860) with excellent internal consistency reliability and stability ICC (>0.90). Satisfactory convergent validity was supported by the correlation analysis between the HHI-Gr and BHS (r = 0.718, P < 0.001). Overall test-retest reliability was satisfactory with a range between 0.77 and 0.96 (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate that the HHI-Gr is an instrument with satisfactory psychometric properties and is a valid research tool for the measurement of the levels of hope among Greek oncology patients.