Members Members Residents Job Board
Join Today Renew Your Membership Make A Donation
2007 Posters: Caring for a Patient with a Stoma Following Colorectal Surgery: Impact On Caregiver Quality of Life
2007 Program and Abstracts | 2007 Posters
Caring for a Patient with a Stoma Following Colorectal Surgery: Impact On Caregiver Quality of Life
Ann K. Seltman*1, Robert R. Cima1, Imran Hassan1, Yi-Quan You1, David W. Larson1, Eric J. Dozois1, Rui Qin2, Kristine M. Thomsen2, John H. Pemberton1
1Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN; 2Division of Biostatistics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN

Background: Care of new stomas following colorectal resection often falls to caregivers, particularly in the early postoperative period. Whether this additional caretaking burden affects caregiver quality of life (QoL) is unknown.
HYPOTHESIS: We hypothesized that caregivers of patients with stomas have a poorer quality QoL in the perioperative period than caregivers of patients without stomas. Our aim was to quantify these differences over time using a validated QoL scale.
Methods: 170 caregivers of patients with or without stomas were evaluated prospectively using the Weitzner CQOLC (Caregiver Quality of Life—Cancer) scale. Caregivers of patients undergoing abdominal colorectal surgery for benign and malignant conditions between May 2005 and June 2006 were eligible. Surveys were administered preoperatively and at 2 and 6 weeks postoperatively. Mixed effects models were used to assess QoL in caregivers of patients with a new stoma vs. no stoma across time adjusting for confounders including age, gender, diagnosis (benign vs. malignant), procedure type (laparoscopic vs. open), and caregiver relationship.
Results: Caregivers of patients with new stomas (n=80) had poorer overall QoL scores at all time points than caregivers of patients without stomas (n=90) (p=0.005, mixed effects model) (see table). QoL improved over time in both groups (p<0.001). The difference between QoL scores for caregivers in both groups did not change over time. Older caregivers had better QoL (p<0.001). Caregiver relationship, gender, patient diagnosis, and procedure type did not impact QoL scores. CQOLC subscales revealed greater burden (p=0.002) and disruptiveness (0.001) in the stoma group, whereas positive adaptation and financial concerns were unaffected.
Conclusions: Caregivers of patients with stomas had a significantly poorer QoL that persisted throughout the pre- and postoperative period, driven largely by a greater sense of burden and disruptiveness. Caregiver QoL improved in both groups at 2 and 6 weeks.
Total score out of 140 for CQOLC (Standard error)

Group Preop 2-weeks 6-weeks
Stoma (n=80) 98 (4) 99 (4) 103 (4)
No stoma (n=90) 104 (4) 109 (4) 111 (4)


2007 Program and Abstracts | 2007 Posters


Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract

Facebook Twitter YouTube

Email SSAT Email SSAT
500 Cummings Center, Suite 4400, Beverly, MA 01915 500 Cummings Center
Suite 4400
Beverly, MA 01915
+1 978-927-8330 +1 978-927-8330
+1 978-524-0498 +1 978-524-0498
Links
About
Membership
Publications
Newsletters
Annual Meeting
Join SSAT
Job Board
Make a Pledge
Event Calendar
Awards