Exploring associations between area deprivation index, income, and loneliness among cancer caregivers.

PURPOSE: Caregivers of patients diagnosed with cancer experience stress associated with their roles and responsibilities as a caregiver. These stressors contribute to psychosocial issues among this population and many caregivers experience loneliness. A caregiver's neighborhood context and financial circumstances could be associated with loneliness. The current study had two objectives: (1) examine the associations among area deprivation index, household income, and loneliness for caregivers of patients with cancer and (2) identify potential interaction effects between area deprivation index and household income on loneliness.

METHODS

Demographic data and baseline surveys for our study were derived from a larger clinical trial of caregivers of patients with cancer receiving outpatient palliative care. Participants were geocoded to determine their census block group and corresponding area deprivation index percentile. Linear models were estimated to assess associations among area deprivation index, household income, and loneliness, and models were subsequently adjusted for several demographic and caregiving context covariates.

RESULTS

The results showed that there was no significant association between area deprivation index and loneliness but did indicate an association between household income and loneliness: caregivers with annual household incomes less than $70,000 experienced greater loneliness on average than those with annual household incomes greater than $70,000. There was no detectable interaction effect of area deprivation index and household income on loneliness.

CONCLUSION

These results indicate that financial and income data should be considered when developing clinical practices or infrastructure to ameliorate loneliness in caregivers of patients with cancer.