Barriers to Pain Management: Incongruence in Black Cancer Caregiving Dyads.

ContextTo effectively manage cancer pain, there is a need to understand how caregiving dyads appraise symptoms. Dyadic appraisal of symptoms influences whether the dyad perceives the patient's pain is managed well and whether they are on the same page with their appraisal. Beliefs can act as barriers to the dyadic appraisal.ObjectivesThis secondary data analysis examined incongruence within Black cancer caregiving dyads regarding beliefs about pain management and potential medication side effects using the Barriers Questionnaire-13. Associated factors were also examined.MethodsGuided by the Theory of Dyadic Illness Management, dyadic multilevel modeling was conducted with data from 60 Black cancer caregiving dyads to determine the dyadic appraisal of beliefs about pain management and potential medication side effects, which includes the average perception of barriers within the dyad (i.e., dyadic average) and the dyadic incongruence (i.e., gap between patient and caregiver).ResultsOn average, Black cancer caregiving dyads reported moderate barriers regarding pain management (2.262 (SE=0.102, PConclusionFindings suggest the importance of appraisal that includes both members of Black cancer caregiving dyads regarding pain management.