Analysis of unmet supportive care needs in patients with thyroid cancer during 13I treatment / 中华核医学与分子影像杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the unmet needs of thyroid cancer patients undergoing 131Itreatment and their relationship with psychological distress and quality of life.Methods From October 2014 to March 2016,a total of 338 patients (106 males,232 females,average age (35.50±9.98) years) with thyroid cancer who were receiving 131I treatment were enrolled.The 34 items of Supportive Care Needs Survey Short Form (SNCS-SF34) were used to investigate the unmet care needs of patients.Patients' perceptions of distress and main causes of distress were measured by Distress Thermometers (DT) and issue list.The 12-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12) was used to measure patients' quality of life.Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the data.Results The degrees of patients' unmet care needs from high to low were as following:health information needs (65.38％,221/338),psychological needs (47.93％,162/338),patients' care and support needs (44.08％,149/338),physical and daily needs (36.09％,122/338) and sexual needs (34.32％,116/338).There were 47.93％(162/388) patients with DT score ＞ 4.The top three causes of patients' distress were fears,fatigue and memory deterioration.Degree of unmet needs for patients had positive correlation with the degree of psychological distress (r values:0.232-0.462,all P＜0.01).The unmet physiological and daily needs and psychological needs of patients had negative correlations with several dimensions of quality of life (r values:from-0.367 to-0.202,all P＜ 0.05).Conclusions The unmet care needs of patients with thyroid cancer have correlations with their psychological distress and quality of life.Evaluation of the unmet care needs of patients with thyroid cancer could be beneficial for providing the targeted care.