@article{10.4103/IJPC.IJPC_199_18, title = {Availability of Informal Caregivers for Palliative Care Patients with Cancer: Is there a Difference between Higher- and Lower-Income Settings}, author = {Abdel-Malek, Raafat and Farag, Dina E. and Shohdy, Kyrillus S. and Cox, Sarah}, abstract = { Objective: Family caregivers are the default caring personnel for terminal cancer patients. The characteristics, demographics, distribution, psychological burden, and socioeconomic standards differ between high- and low-income countries. We aimed to assess those factors and their direct reflection on both the patient and the caregiver. Patients and Methods: This is a comparative cross-sectional study for terminal cancer patients in the palliative care unit between the United Kingdom (UK) as a high-income community and Egypt as a low-income community. We assessed the different characteristics, demographics, living place, the degree of relevance, and the availability of caregivers. Results: We have recruited 216 patients from the UK and 117 patients from Egypt. Informal caregivers were available in 74.5% and 92.3% for these patients with a mean age of 71.5 (standard deviation [SD] 16) years and 50.9 (SD 15.18) years, respectively. There has been a statistically significant difference between the two countries’ caregivers in being married, family, and living in the same household (\textit{P} < 0.0001). Conclusion: Low-income countries are more common to have an informal caregiver who is a family member of different degree of relevance. Caregivers in low-income settings tend to be younger, of the female gender, married, and living in the same household than in high-income ones. }, volume = 25, issn = {0973-1075}, issn = {1998-3735}, url = {https://doi.org/10.4103/IJPC.IJPC_199_18}, doi = {10.4103/IJPC.IJPC_199_18} }