Family Members’ Perceptions of Caregiver-Centered Communication with Hospice Interdisciplinary Teams: Relationship to Caregiver Wellbeing

Objective: Investigators sought to determine how family caregivers’ psychological and physical wellbeing influenced their perceptions of communication with hospice providers. Methods: Researchers conducted a secondary analysis of quantitative data generated during two multisite randomized clinical trials of supportive interventions for hospice family caregivers. Caregivers’ (N = 525) self-reported anxious symptoms, depressive symptoms, physical quality of life, and perceptions of communication with hospice providers were analyzed via a series of linear models that included demographic and contextual controls. Results: Caregivers’ anxious symptoms, depressive symptoms, and physical quality of life were largely unrelated to caregivers’ perceptions of their communication with hospice providers when adjusted for demographic and contextual factors. Conclusions: Variation in caregivers’ perceptions of their communication with hospice providers was not well explained by caregiver wellbeing. Additional research is needed to understand if and how caregivers’ perceptions of communication with hospice providers are related to factors not included in this secondary analysis. Provider-related variables may be particularly important to consider.