Treatment effects of palliative care consultation and patient contentment: A monocentric observational study. Issue 12 (26th March 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Flöther, Lilit; Pötzsch, Barabara; Jung, Maria; Jung, Robert; Bucher, Michael; Glowka, André; Medenwald, Daniel
• Other Names: Vartolomei. Mihai Dorin section editor.
• Is Part Of: Medicine. Volume 100:Issue 12(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-03-26
• Subjects: FAMCARE-6 -- M.D. Anderson symptom inventory -- palliative care consultation -- symptom burden; Medicine -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Médecine -- Périodiques; Geneeskunde; Medicine; Periodicals; Periodicals; 610.5
• DOI: 10.1097/MD.0000000000024320
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0025-7974

Abstract

Abstract : Abstract: Palliative care is a central component of the therapy in terminally ill patients. During treatment in non-palliative departments this can be realized by consultation. To analyze the change in symptom burden during palliative care consultation. In this observational study, we enrolled all cancer cases (n = 163) receiving inpatient treatment for 2015 to 2018 at our institution. We used the MDASI-questionnaire (0 = 'not present' and 10 = "as bad as you can imagine") and the FAMCARE-6 (1 = very satisfied, 5 = very dissatisfied) to analyze the treatment effect and patient satisfaction, respectively. We examined the association of symptom burden and patient satisfaction using Spearman-correlation. Comparing mean values, we applied the Wilcoxon-test and one-way ANOVA. An improvement in MDASI-core-items after treatment completion was significant ( P < .05) in 14/18 symptoms. The change in perception of pain showed the strongest improvement (median: 5 to 3). Initially the MDASI-items "activity" (median = 8) and emotional distress (median = 5 and 6) were viewed as especially incriminating. There was no evidence for a correlation between patients' age, the type of diagnosis and time since diagnosis. The analysis of FAMCARE-6 patient contentment was lower or equal to two in all of the six items. There was a weak negative association between the change in symptom burden of psycho-emotional items "distress/feeling upset" ( P = .006, r Sp = −0, 226), "sadness" and patient satisfaction in FAMCARE-6. A considerable improvement of the extensive symptom burden particularly of pain relief was achieved by integrating palliative consultation in clinical practice. Abstract : Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text