Features and differences in core symptom clusters in home-based hospice patients with advanced cancer : a network analysis

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WEI, Yitao | CHENG, Wan | LU, Yuanfeng | ZHU, Zheng | XU, Guiru | WU, Hong | LIN, Shaowei | XIAO, Huimin

INTRODUCTION: Patients with terminal-stage cancer frequently experience multiple symptoms simultaneously. Little is known about how core symptom clusters differ in advanced-cancer patients with different survival expectancies receiving hospice care. To identify the core symptom clusters of hospice-care cancer patients with different survival expectancies and compare the features of their symptom networks. METHODS: In this retrospective study, secondary data analysis was conducted. Records of 6946 patients with advanced cancer who received home-based hospice care service in a hospice center from April 2001 to December 2020 were collected and analyzed using network analysis. RESULTS: This analysis included 6946 patients with advanced cancer receiving hospice care. In patients with survival expectancies of 0–6 months, loss of appetite was identified as the core symptom (rs = 4.03, rb = 5.21, rc = 2.63), and five symptom clusters were identified. Malnutrition was the core symptom in patients with survival expectancies of 6–12 months (rs = 2.83, rb = 2.43, rc = 0.93), and nine symptom clusters were identified. Wasting syndrome was the core symptom cluster in two groups. The network density of symptoms in patients with < 6 months of survival expectancy (91.99) was higher than in patients with 6–12 months (28.39). CONCLUSIONS: Nutrition impact symptoms are the core symptoms for home-hospice care cancer patients with a survival period of 1year or below. Moreover, hospice cancer patients with short survival expectancies have greater inter-symptom impact.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cam4.70370

Voir la revue «Cancer medicine, 13»

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