Psychological symptom burden associated with malignant wounds: Secondary analysis of a prospective cohort study.
Palliat Support Care
; 22(2): 396-403, 2024 Apr.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37525610
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
Patients with malignant wounds suffer from physical and psychological symptom burden. Despite psychological support being required, the impact of malignant wounds on patients' psychological distress is poorly investigated. We evaluated psychological distress associated with malignant wounds for patients at their end of life.METHODS:
This study used the secondary analysis of the results of a large prospective cohort study, which investigated the dying process among patients with advanced cancer in 23 palliative care units in Japan. The primary outcome of this study was the prevalence of moderate to severe psychological symptom burden, evaluated by the Integrated Palliative Care Outcome Scale (IPOS)-feeling at peace scores of 2-4. In addition, the factors affecting psychological symptoms were investigated. The quality of death was also evaluated upon death using the Good Death Scale score.RESULTS:
Out of the total 1896 patients, 156 had malignant wounds (8.2%). Malignant wounds were more common in female and young people. The breast, head, and neck were the most prevalent primary sites. More patients with malignant wounds had IPOS-feeling at peace scores of 2-4 than patients without malignant wounds (41.0% vs. 31.3%, p = 0.024). Furthermore, psychological distress was associated with moderate to severe IPOS-pain and the frequency of dressing changes. The presence of malignant wounds did not affect the quality of death. SIGNIFICANCE OFRESULTS:
This study showed increased psychological distress due to malignant wounds. Patients with malignant wounds require psychological support in addition to the treatment of physical symptoms for maintaining their quality of life.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Quality of Life
/
Symptom Burden
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Etiology_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Aspects:
Patient_preference
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Female
/
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Palliat Support Care
Journal subject:
TERAPEUTICA
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Japan