Abstract

Introduction: Cancer is a non-communicable disease that causes the second-highest death in the world. It is not only affect the individual but also the family. Family may experience stress when the patients can’t cope with their symptoms. Social support and sprituality of the family influence the family’s stress level.  The study aimed to describe the relationship between social support, spirituality, and stress towards the burden of family caregivers of cancer patients in hospitals.

Method: Cross sectional and purposive sampling technique was used in to 106 family caregivers in Fatmawati Hospital and Gatot Subroto Army Hospital, Jakarta. This study utilized four instruments: Multimodal Scale of Perceived Social Support, Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy Spiritual Well-Being Scale, Perceived Stress Scale, and Caregiver Reaction Assessment Scale.

Result: Among the 106 family caregivers, 52,8% felt the high caregiving burden; 74,5% perceived moderate social support; 67,9% felt low level of spirituality; and 60,4% felt moderate level of stress. There was a significant relationship between social support and burden (p value 0.03), spirituality and burden (p value 0,00), stress and burden (p value 0.02). It can be concluded that social support, spirituality, and stress have the significant relationship towards the burden of family caregivers of cancer patients, and the dominant factor was spirituality. Spirituality support for family caregivers of cancer patients need to be done to decrease the burden of family caregivers of cancer patients.