Self-perceived burden and influencing factors in patients with cervical cancer administered with radiotherapy

Table 1 General information of cervical cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy (n = 110)

Item	Cases (n)	%	Variable	Cases (n)	%
Age (yr)			Times of current radiotherapy
31-39	10	9.1	1-10	25	22.7
40-59	72	65.4	11-20	51	46.4
60-79	28	25.5	> 20	34	30.9
Residence			Pathological type
Rural area	59	53.6	Squamous carcinoma	90	81.8
City	51	46.4	Adenocarcinoma or adenosquamous carcinoma	20	18.2
Marital status			Tumor stage
Single or widowed	9	8.2	Stage I	27	24.6
Married	101	91.8	Stage II	34	30.9
Religion			Stage III	37	33.6
No	102	92.7	Stage IV	12	10.9
Yes	8	7.3	Radiation way
Education level			In vitro	71	64.5
Primary school or below	54	49.1	In vitro + intracavity	39	35.5
Junior high school	36	32.7	Recurrence
Senior high school	8	7.3	No	104	94.5
College degree or above	12	10.9	Yes	6	5.5
Monthly family income per capita			Metastasis
< 3000	31	28.1	No	85	77.3
3000-5000	50	45.5	Yes	25	22.7
> 5000	29	26.4	Radiation dermatitis
Payment method			0	36	32.7
Self-paying	26	23.6	1	68	61.8
Networking inside and outside province	17	15.5	> 2	6	5.5
Health care in the city	67	60.9	Radiation proctitis
Caregiver			0	27	24.5
Spouse	51	46.4	1	53	48.2
Offspring	45	40.9	> 2	30	27.3
Other	14	12.7	Radiation cystitis
Caregiver Age (yr)			0	87	79.1
18-39	48	43.6	1	15	13.6
40-59	37	33.7	> 2	8	7.3
60-	25	22.7	Pain
Gender of caregiver			No	78	70.9
Female	45	40.9	Yes	32	29.1
Male	65	59.1

Table 2 Self-perceived burden subscores and self-care self-efficacy scale scores and correlations with total self-perceived burden score in cervical cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy (n = 110)

Item	(Score, mean ± SD)	Total score of SPB
		r	P
Financial/family burden	16.89 ± 6.44	0.914	< 0.05
Care burden	8.90 ± 4.22	0.835	< 0.05
Treatment burden	7.31 ± 3.48	0.770	< 0.05
Emotional burden	10.10 ± 5.03	0.872	< 0.05
Total score of SPB	43.13 ± 16.65
Total score of self-care self-efficacy scale	99.52 ± 25.34	-0.701	< 0.05

SPB: Self-perceived burden.

Table 3 Univariate analysis of self-perceived burden scores based on general data in cervical cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy (n = 110)

Item	Case (n)	mean ± SD	t/F	P	Pairwise comparison
Age (yr)			0.620	0.540
(1) 31-39	10	48.60 ± 24.075
(2) 40-49	72	42.83 ± 15.959
(3) 60-79	28	41.93 ± 15.604
Residence			4.667	< 0.05	(1) > (2)
(1) Rural area	59	49.44 ± 16.406
(2) City	51	35.82 ± 13.811
Marital status			0.143	0.887
(1) Single or widowed	9	43.89 ± 19.637
(2) Married	101	43.06 ± 16.471
Religion			1.015	0.312
(1) No	102	43.58 ± 16.766
(2) Yes	8	37.38 ± 14.851
Education level			0.044	0.987
Primary school or below	54	43.17 ± 15.779
Junior high school	36	43.04 ± 17.064
Senior high school	8	44.88 ± 27.205
College degree or above	12	42.08 ± 12.117
Family per capita monthly income			24.572	< 0.05	(1) > (2)
< 3000	31	56.77 ± 18.353			(2) > (3)
3000-5000	50	41.06 ± 12.904			(1) > (3)
> 5000	29	32.10 ± 9.344
Payment method			13.051	< 0.05	(1) > (2)
Self-paying	26	56.27 ± 16.185			(1) > (3)
Networking inside and outside province	17	40.53 ± 13.172
Health care in the city	67	38.69 ± 15.060
Caregiver			1.418	0.247
Spouse	51	40.31 ± 17.136
Offspring	45	45.18 ± 13.890
Other	14	46.79 ± 21.959
Caregiver age (yr)			1.183	0.310
(1) 18-39	48	45.85 ± 16.720
(2) 40-59	37	41.49 ± 15.073
(3) 60-	25	40.32 ± 18.538
Gender of caregiver			1.538	0.127
(1) Female	45	46.04 ± 16.628
(2) Male	65	44.01 ± 16.605
Times of current radiotherapy			0.096	0.909
(1) 1-10	25	42.16 ± 16.570
(2) 11-20	51	42.98 ± 16.861
(3) > 20	34	44.06 ± 16.843
Pathological type			-1.807	0.074
(1) Squamous carcinoma	90	41.79 ± 15.489
(2) Adenocarcinoma or adenosquamous carcinoma	20	49.15 ± 20.497
Clinical tumor stage			1.272	0.288
(1) Stage I	27	39.41 ± 14.550
(2) Stage II	34	41.24 ± 16.672
(3) Stage III	37	46.43 ± 17.868
(4) Stage IV	12	46.67 ± 16.516
Radiation way			0.035	0.972
(1) In vitro	71	43.17 ± 16.902
(2) In vitro + intracavity	39	43.05 ± 16.401
Recurrence			-0.660	0.511
(1) No	104	42.88 ± 15.826
(2) Yes	6	47.50 ± 29.331
Metastasis			-5.333	< 0.05	(2) > (1)
(1) No	85	39.02 ± 13.885
(2) Yes	25	57.08 ± 17.944
Radiation dermatitis			20.183	< 0.05	(2) > (1)
(1) 0	36	31.92 ± 07.951			(3) > (1)
(2) 1	68	47.22 ± 16.977			(3) > (2)
(3) > 2	6	64.00 ± 09.143
Radiation proctitis			8.199	< 0.05	(2) > (1)
(1) 0	27	33.74 ± 11.772			(3) > (1)
(2) 1	53	43.75 ± 15.859
(3) > 2	30	50.47 ± 18.122
Radiation cystitis			3.926	< 0.05	(3) > (1)
(1) 0	87	41.03 ± 16.340
(2) 1	15	48.67 ± 15.351
(3) > 2	8	55.50 ± 16.440
Pain			-3.132	< 0.05	(2) > (1)
(1) No	78	40.06 ± 14.848
(2) Yes	32	50.59 ± 18.604

Table 4 Multivariate analysis of factors potentially affecting self-perceived burden in cervical cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy

Variable	Partial regression coefficient	Standard error	Standardized partial regression coefficient	t	P value
Self-management effectiveness	-0.303	0.036	-0.462	-8.431	0.000
Residence	-4.110	1.784	-0.124	-2.304	0.023
Family per capita monthly income	-5.231	1.242	-0.233	-4.211	0.000
Payment method	-3.515	1.027	-0.178	-3.424	0.001
Radiation dermatitis	6.540	1.672	0.219	3.912	0.000
Radiation proctitis	3.814	1.226	0.166	3.110	0.002

R² = 0.751.