Family members of critically ill cancer patients: assessing the symptoms of anxiety and depression

Objective  To determine prevalence and factors associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression in family members of critically ill cancer patients. Design  Prospective cohort study. Setting  A 23-bed intensive care unit in a tertiary cancer centre. Patients and Participants  Three hundred consecutive families of cancer patients with length of stay >72 h in ICU. Intervention  None. Measurements and main results  The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale questionnaire and critical care family needs inventory were completed by family members. Prevalence of anxiety and depression in family members was 71 and 50.3%, respectively. Regarding the patients’ disease, family depression was correlated with presence of metastasis, whereas hematological malignancies correlated with family’ anxiety. Anxiety was independently associated with one patient-related factor (prolonged mechanical ventilation) and two family-related factors (catholic religion and gender). Factors associated with symptoms of depression included one patient-related factor (presence of metastasis) and one family-related factor (gender). Conclusions  Present findings demonstrated a high prevalence of anxiety and depression in critically ill cancer patients’ family members during an intensive care unit stay. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.