Abstract
Objective: Cancer affects the patients as well as their spouses. Couples use different strategies to cope with cancer and the associated burden. This qualitative dyadic interviews aims to gain a deeper and more differentiated understanding of the support system about couples.
Methods: An exploratory qualitative study set in China. The study was based on 10 pancreatic cancer couples semi-structured face-to-face interviews with patients undergoing pancreatic cancer and experiencing different symptoms. Interviews were verbatim transcribed and analysed using thematic framework analysis. This study was guided by the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) checklist.
Results: Ten pancreatic cancer couples (patients: seven men and three women) with different ages (patients: range = 49-75; spouses: range = 47-73), different stage of cancer (e.g., potentially resectable, borderline resectable, locally advanced) and cancer types (initial diagnosis or relapse) participated in the study. Eleven minor themes emerged from the data, namely unbearable pain, suffer from malnutrition,unhealthy eating habits, negative emotions, disease stigma, lack of knowledge, unable to fulfill social roles, forced to stop work, worried about a costly medical bill, conceal the fact about illness, and loss of intimacy with friends and spouse. All couples described cohesion in relationship as an essential common dyadic coping strategy. Most strategies were focused on the patient’s well-being. Furthermore, couples reported different common plans for the future: while some wanted to return to normality, others were reaching out for new goals.
Conclusions: Active dyadic coping is conducive to promoting disease adaptation, spouses seemed to need more psychological support to improve their own well-being particularly. Health care systems should pay attention to patients and spouses with pancreatic cancer in terms of the four areas of the RAM: physiological, self-concept, role function and interdependence. Future studies should use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to explain dyadic coping in greater depth.