Abstract
AIM: Family resilience plays a crucial role in cancer recurrence patients and their caregivers. However, there are few studies that have studied the family resilience of patients with recurrent cancer and their caregivers at the same time. Guided by the framework of family resilience, this study explored the status, influencing factors and interactions of family resilience between patients with recurrent cancer and their caregivers. DESIGN: Observational cross-sectional study. METHOD: Selecting 204 patients with recurrent tumors and their caregivers from October to November 2023 as the study subjects, and the actor-partner interdependence model of the family resilience of patients with recurrent tumors and their caregivers was established to analyze the current status, influencing factors and interactions of the family resilience of patients and caregivers. RESULT: There was a significant correlation between the level of family resilience with the level of perceived social support, the level of Herth's hope, the level of patients' self-perceived burden and the level of burden on the caregiver. The actor-partner interdependence model revealed the direct impact of the patients' and caregivers' social support and hope level on their own family resilience. The indirect effect of the caregivers' social support on the patients' family resilience, in which the caregivers' hope level plays a significant mediating role. CONCLUSION: The family resilience of patients with recurrent cancer and their caregivers is affected by the level of social support and hope. In order to help patients and caregivers better cope with the disease, it is recommended that clinical medical staff pay attention to improving the social support and hope level of disease treatment of patients and caregivers, and regard the two as a community, and explore intervention programs focusing on improving family resilience.