Impact of “four-step” death education on life quality and negative emotions in advanced esophageal cancer patients and families

Table 5 Caregiver burden perception, mean ± SD

Index	SC group (n = 127)	FDE group (n = 108)	t/χ2	P value
Pre-intervention
Emotional burden	37.57 ± 3.01	37.74 ± 2.92	0.437	0.663
Time-dependent burden	6.73 ± 0.51	6.67 ± 0.54	0.986	0.325
Developmental burden	6.52 ± 0.56	6.57 ± 0.48	0.871	0.384
Social burden	6.41 ± 0.77	6.45 ± 0.63	0.378	0.706
Pre-intervention
Emotional burden	29.66 ± 2.45	28.91 ± 2.61	2.288	0.023
Time-dependent burden	6.27 ± 0.54	6.11 ± 0.56	2.237	0.026
Developmental burden	6.16 ± 0.65	5.99 ± 0.61	2.025	0.044
Social burden	6.33 ± 0.64	6.29 ± 0.63	0.449	0.654

SC: Standard care; FDE: Four-step death education.