Caregiver Support in the Quality of Life of Patients Who Are Undergoing Donor Bone Marrow Transplantation

• Correlate presence of a lay care-partner with survival post transplant [ Time Frame: At least one year post transplant ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  

Procedure: psychosocial assessment and care
psychosocial assessment and care
Procedure: Quality of Life Assessments
PACT Scale, Brief COPE, POMS Short Form and FACT BMT

OBJECTIVES:

• Investigate the relative importance of having a consistent inpatient lay care-partner for patients undergoing allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.

OUTLINE: Patients complete a 30-minute quality of life questionnaire in order to measure their psychosocial health while in the bone marrow transplant program, including Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT), Profile of Mood State (POMS), and Brief COPE questionnaires, at the baseline (pre-transplant) appointment, at the first physician's visit after discharge, at day 100 post-transplant, and then at 6 months and 1 year post-transplant. Caregivers complete a 30-minute coping questionnaire at the pre-transplant appointment, at the first physician's visit after discharge, and then at day 100 post-transplant. Caregivers also keep a weekly log of the time spent with the patient in the hospital.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 150 patients will be accrued for this study.