Correlation of Cancer Caregiver's Burden, Stress, and Their Quality of Life.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to examine the stress levels felt by family caregivers. The main objectives of this study are (a) the cross-examination of family caregiver's burden, (b) caregiver's stress levels and its impact on burden feeling, also (c) the effect of caregiving on caregiver's quality of life. METHODS: A quantitative method was developed, with the use and collection of anonymous questionnaires. Participants consisted of 121 family caregivers of patients under Home Parenteral Nutrition (HPN), along with the oversight of the company "Ygeias Erga and co." Tools that have been used for the needs of this study are a questionnaire with basic demographics: The Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI), Quality of life questionnaire (CarGQoL), and KINGSTON CAREGIVER STRESS SCALE (KCSS): Data were analyzed with SPSS 22. RESULTS: 65.3% of the participants were women with an average age of 50.7 years. 39.7% were patients' spouses and 26.4% were high school graduates. 31.7% of the participants suffered from a chronic disease, with 22.3% taking daily medication. 67.8% lived in the same house as the patient, 30.6% were taking care of the patient for 6-12 months, and 39.7% had no help from another person. 43.8% of patients were under HPN for 1-3 months. A negative correlation was found between all dimensions of the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) and Kingston Caregiver Stress Scale and cancer caregiver CarGQoL scale scoring. Participants, who had help from another person permanently, had a better quality of life from others with no help whatsoever. Higher stress levels were found to be correlated with worse quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: Burden increase was found to be related to stress increase. Younger participants and patients' female spouses had higher levels of stress. The present research also found that stress related to financial issues had an important role. Family caregiver support is found to be a matter of great importance, and healthcare professionals have to pay attention to their needs.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Health and Social Inequalities Worldwide: Impact and Response Measures in Greece.

OBJECTIVES: The pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing health and socioeconomic inequalities around the globe. In order to mitigate the effects of extreme isolation and containment measures, governments have taken steps to protect the health, the economy, employment, and socially vulnerable groups. The health crisis should be treated as a pretext in order to ensure universal access to health and socioeconomics.The aim of this review was the presentation of the way the pandemic contributed to the worldwide deterioration of health inequities affecting in parallel the social protection in the health, economic and educational sector along with other factors, the effects and the measures taken, in order to face the consequences of a pandemic on the social protection in Greece in comparison with other countries of Europe. METHODS: A cross-sectional bibliographic study was undertaken using keywords and phrases such as "COVID-19," "Health inequities," "Social protection," and "Social identifiers." The search was done through the search engines google scholar, PubMed, Health link, and Elsevier using either the Greek or English language. The total number of evaluated read-used articles was 30. Inclusion criteria were free full-text meta-analyses, reviews, and systematic reviews. RESULTS: The socially disadvantaged groups in the United States were found to have a lower life expectancy and higher morbidity rates than privileged social groups, as economic, health, and sociocultural precariousness are major causes of death. Patients with underlying diseases are vulnerable groups and increase the risk of coronavirus infection and quite often lead to loss of life due to complications of the disease. Greece is ranked in the 4th worst position with 61.10% in employment in all European Union (EU) countries. There is a significant increase in deaths with a percentage change from 2018 to date of 17.50%. It also holds the 3rd worst position among EU countries in the field of unemployment, while women hold the 2nd worst with a rate of 13.50%. Overworked and overindebted households due to extreme measures due to the pandemic (reduction of working time, quarantine) led to unemployment, loss of income, poverty, widening social inequalities, and deteriorating care for people with disabilities. Children due to the closure of schools and the loss of school meals are led to food insecurity. The pandemic also left many children orphaned after the death of their parents by COVID-19, with psychosocial problems exacerbated by school closures. CONCLUSIONS: The pandemic has exacerbated long-standing health and socioeconomic inequalities, stressing to governments the need to adopt political strategies that will help address them. Measures have been taken in Greece for labor protection, and unemployment benefits, such as the two-month extension of the subsidy period for the unemployed and the long-term unemployed. Minimum insurance days have also been reduced so that citizens employed in tourism, catering, and other seasonal occupations can receive unemployment benefits.

Investigation of Factors That Affect the Quality of Life After a Stroke.

Stroke, as a disease, describes a group of disorders characterized by the presence of central nervous system symptoms either as a result of ischemia (ischemic stroke) or bleeding (hemorrhagic stroke). The appearance of a stroke results in a permanent physical or cognitive disability. The stroke incidence is the third cause of death after heart disease and cancer, and is the main cause of long-term disability.The effects of a stroke on a patient's daily life, and hence on his quality of life, are intense and long-lasting. These include memory problems, speech difficulty, depression, reduced vision loss, and decreased walking ability. This limitation of the patient's motor activity has a direct negative impact on the quality of his life.To investigate the degree of this impact, a research was carried out at a hospital of Central Greece. The total sample consisted of 90 patients and the responses showed that post-stroke symptoms are significant. Consequences and treatment control of the disease on the life of the sample were the questions with the highest score showing the significant effect that a stroke has on life the patients.More specifically, the sample showed through responses that the disease affects their lives to a great extent. The pre-stroke scores on the domains of the sample are clearly higher than post-stroke. The highest difference was found in the use of the upper extremities in self-care and family roles while the lowest was found in the domain of thinking. The most affected domains were as follows: thinking, vision, and language. Alternatively, the least affected domain was family roles.