TY - JOUR
T1 - Bereaved Family Members’ Perceptions of the Distressing Symptoms of Terminal Patients With Cancer
AU - Okamoto, Yoshiaki
AU - Morita, Tatsuya
AU - Tsuneto, Satoru
AU - Aoyama, Maho
AU - Kizawa, Yoshiyuki
AU - Shima, Yasuo
AU - Miyashita, Mitsunori
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: funded by the Japan Hospice Palliative Care Foundation and cosupported by a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (Grant Number 25293165).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, © The Author(s) 2018.
PY - 2018/7/1
Y1 - 2018/7/1
N2 - Background: Few data are available on bereaved family members’ perspective on the frequency of symptoms and degree of distress among terminal patients with cancer. Methods: We sent a questionnaire to 1472 bereaved family members of terminal patients with cancer in 20 general hospitals. The questionnaire asked them (1) to indicate which symptoms the patients had, (2) to rate on a 4-point scale the extent to which the symptom was distressing, as follows: 1 = not distressing, 2 = slightly distressing, 3 = quite distressing, and 4 = very distressing at the point of 2 weeks before the patient had died. Results: We analyzed 805 questionnaires for this study. Anorexia was the commonest symptom among terminal patients with cancer experienced by bereaved family members, followed by somnolence, weight loss, fatigue, and pain. Anorexia was the most distressing symptom among terminal patients with cancer experienced by bereaved family members, followed by weight loss, pain, edema, and dyspnea. Conclusions: Anorexia and weight loss were frequent symptoms and bereaved family members felt very distressing. Furthermore, there are not means of effective treatment now. Thus, we think that further study in this field is necessary.
AB - Background: Few data are available on bereaved family members’ perspective on the frequency of symptoms and degree of distress among terminal patients with cancer. Methods: We sent a questionnaire to 1472 bereaved family members of terminal patients with cancer in 20 general hospitals. The questionnaire asked them (1) to indicate which symptoms the patients had, (2) to rate on a 4-point scale the extent to which the symptom was distressing, as follows: 1 = not distressing, 2 = slightly distressing, 3 = quite distressing, and 4 = very distressing at the point of 2 weeks before the patient had died. Results: We analyzed 805 questionnaires for this study. Anorexia was the commonest symptom among terminal patients with cancer experienced by bereaved family members, followed by somnolence, weight loss, fatigue, and pain. Anorexia was the most distressing symptom among terminal patients with cancer experienced by bereaved family members, followed by weight loss, pain, edema, and dyspnea. Conclusions: Anorexia and weight loss were frequent symptoms and bereaved family members felt very distressing. Furthermore, there are not means of effective treatment now. Thus, we think that further study in this field is necessary.
KW - J-HOPE
KW - anorexia
KW - bereaved family member
KW - distressing symptom
KW - terminal cancer patient
KW - weight loss
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U2 - 10.1177/1049909118765409
DO - 10.1177/1049909118765409
M3 - Article
C2 - 29609469
AN - SCOPUS:85045063312
SN - 1049-9091
VL - 35
SP - 972
EP - 977
JO - American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine
JF - American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine
IS - 7
ER -
