TY - JOUR T1 - Influence of Family Caregiver Caring Behavior on COPD Patients' Self-Care Behavior in Taiwan JF - Respiratory Care SP - 263 LP - 272 DO - 10.4187/respcare.00986 VL - 57 IS - 2 AU - Kwua-Yun Wang AU - Pei-Yi Sung AU - Sheng-Tzu Yang AU - Chi-Huei Chiang AU - Wann-Cherng Perng Y1 - 2012/02/01 UR - http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/57/2/263.abstract N2 - BACKGROUND: COPD becomes a long-term burden on family members who serve as day-to-day caregivers, and causes healthcare systems to incur substantial costs. COPD is both preventable and treatable, and one important aspect of COPD treatment is patients' self-management. This study aimed to investigate relationships between self-management and the caregiver burden, and the influence of family caregivers' caring behavior on COPD patients' self-care behavior. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study conducted between March 2007 and January 2008, 192 pairs of COPD patients (age > 40 years, normal cognitive function) and their primary family caregivers were recruited to answer questionnaires measuring COPD characteristics and COPD knowledge (patients and caregivers); functional status, health beliefs, self-efficacy, and self-care (patients); and caring behavior and caregiver response (family members). All questionnaires were shown to have acceptable validity and reliability, and the data were analyzed using univariate and multivariate techniques. RESULTS: Patients' ages, scores in health belief, self-efficacy and disease-related knowledge were shown to correlate with patients' self-care behavior. Patients' self-care behavior was negatively correlated with family caregivers' caring behavior (ρ = −0.21, P = .003), but positively with caring duration of family caregiver caring behavior (ρ = 0.15, P = .037). Patients with a spouse as caregiver exhibited higher self-care ability than patients not married to their caregivers (P = .038). However, patients' self-care behavior decreased with higher family caregivers' COPD knowledge (P = .041) and caring behavior (P = .01), and patients regularly taking medication exhibited low self-care scores. CONCLUSIONS: Family caregivers' caring behavior had a partial negative effect on COPD patients' self-care behavior. ER -