Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To explore the levels and group differences of posttraumatic growth and heart rate variability in a sample of brain tumor patients and their caregivers. METHODS: Convenience sampling method was adopted, and general information questionnaire, posttraumatic growth scale, and heart rate variability test were applied to survey and test a total of 55 dyads of brain tumor patients and their caregivers (110 participants) who were hospitalized in a tertiary-level hospital in Guangzhou City. RESULTS: The posttraumatic growth scores of brain tumor patients and their caregivers were 59.00 (44.00, 71.00) and 65.00 (56.00, 73.00), respectively. Analysis of variance showed that total power [TP], high frequency power [HF], and low frequency power [LF] were higher in caregivers than in brain tumor patients, and the results were significantly different (t = -4.424 to -2.194, p (ln) total = 0.030, p (ln) LF < 0.001, p (ln) HF < 0.001); In addition to the above frequency domain metrics, individuals "individuals" with PTG (vs. without PTG) showed significantly higher SDNN, RMSSD (F = 4.300 to 42.275, p = < 0.001 to 0.041). CONCLUSIONS: Significant differences in HRV metrics across populations (patients vs. caregivers) and individuals with different levels of posttraumatic growth suggest that HRV may serve as a biomarker for assessing posttraumatic growth.