Understanding the impact of family caregiver cancer literacy on patient health outcomes

Objective: Family caregivers play a significant role in the diagnosis, treatment, and recovery of individuals with cancer. This position paper reviews and links the research on family caregiving and health information with the importance of cancer literacy. Method: Review of literature obtained through searching in Academic Search Premier, EBSCO, Communication and Mass Media Complete, PsychArticles, PsycInfo, and Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition library databases. Results: Family members are important sources of health information, informal caregivers who learn and enact medical procedures, and influential aspects of patients' healthcare and treatment decision-making, but are not seriously considered by healthcare practitioners or researchers in terms of assessing and improving health literacy. Further, very few studies have directly examined or acknowledged the potential importance of family caregiver health literacy. Conclusion: The extent to which family caregivers can comprehend the health information they receive along with the patient is crucial for the patient to achieve the most successful health outcome. Practice implications: To acknowledge the impact that family caregiver health literacy could have on patient health outcomes, targeted practical recommendations for understanding family caregiver health literacy in the cancer context are proposed: (1) family member health literacy should be assessed; (2) close relational partners should be trained as peer health educators; (3) written cancer information should be provided directly to family caregivers; (4) health interactions between family caregivers and patients should be improved; (5) theoretical perspectives into the understanding of family caregiver health literacy should be integrated into practice; and (6) patient and family caregiver health literacy should be improved. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.