Abstract
Background. Distress of cancer patients is often left unnoticed and it induces various problems: it is harder for patients to adjust to the illness, the quality of life is poorer, it causes much distress for the team of oncologists. 1 year before in the VU Institute of Oncology the Distress Thermometer was started to be used for all patients in the hospital.
Purpose. To explore distress prevalence and features of cancer patients’ in the hospital.
Participants and methods. There were 488 participants. The Distress Thermometer (DT) was used to evaluate distress of the participants. DT consists of a Likert type scale from 0 to 10 that assesses the strength of experienced distress, and a problem list that includes practical, family, emotional, spiritual and physical problem groups.
Results. The mean score of distress of all participants was 3.47 (SD = 2.47). 82% of participants pointed from 0 to 5 scores, 18% of participants indicated from 6 to 10 scores. There was a statistically significant corellation between the distress score and the number of problems (r = 0.43, p < 0.01). The mean number of problems was 1.95 (SD = 2.60). The most frequent problems were anxiety (31.6%), fears (20.5%), fatigue (16.8%), nervousness (15.2%), etc. The mean score of women distress (4.07) was significantly higher that that of men (2.68) (p < 0.001). The younger the participants, the higher the distress was (r = –0.13, p < 0.01). The patients of surgical treatment pointed higher distress (M = 3.98) than the patients of therapeutic treatment (M = 2.51) (p < 0.01).
Conclusions. 1/5 of patients experience high distress. Women experience higher distress and problems than men. Patients in surgical treatment experience higher distress and emotional problems than patients in therapeutic treatment. DT is a very optimal method to assess the distress of cancer patients but the results need to be cautiously evaluated.
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
-
Narimantas Evaldas SAMALAVIČIUS,
Alfredas KILIUS,
Kęstutis PETRULIS,
Simona LETAUTIENĖ,
Rūta GRIGIENĖ,
Rūta BRIEDIENĖ,
Edita MIŠEIKYTĖ-KAUBRIENĖ,
Transanal endoscopic microsurgery: results of the first 50 cases
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 19 No. 1 (2012)
-
Arvydas Baranauskas,
Vilhelmas Bajoras,
Povilas Budrys,
Aleksandras Laucevičius,
Giedrius Davidavičius,
FFR guided PCI on long coronary lesions: 2-year clinical results with 2nd or newer generation DES
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 23 No. 1 (2016)
-
Diana Gasiūnaitė,
Jūratė Šipylaitė,
Eglė Kontrimavičiūtė,
Eligijus Poškus,
Impact of anesthesia method on cortisol and interleukin-6 concentration changes during and after laparoscopic colorectal surgery
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 19 No. 3 (2012)
-
Gytis Šustickas,
Dainius Rinkevičius,
Jurgita Ušinskienė,
Simona Rūta Letautienė,
Audrius Širvinskas,
Case-series analysis of intracranial saccular aneurysms treatment
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 22 No. 3 (2015)
-
Nadežda Lachej,
Janina Didžiapetrienė,
Birutė Kazbarienė,
Daiva Kanopienė,
Violeta Jonušienė,
Association between Notch signaling pathway and cancer
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 19 No. 4 (2012)
-
Andrew BUSH,
Problematic, severe asthma in children: a new concept and how to manage it
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 17 No. 1-2 (2010)
-
Inga Griškova-Bulanova,
Non-invasive evaluation of electrical brain activity: effects of non-medicative treatment and subject’s state
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 20 No. 1 (2013)
-
Živilė Gudlevičienė,
Genovefa Chvatovič,
New challenges in the biomedical science: biobanking problems and solutions
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 20 No. 4 (2013)
-
Augustina Jankauskienė,
Daiva Vaičiūnienė,
Indrė Stacevičienė,
Prevalence of lower urinary tract symptoms in Vilnius area children and adolescents
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 21 No. 1 (2014)
-
Justinas KRETAVIČIUS,
Rūta DUBAKIENĖ,
Jonas BALŽEKAS,
Viktoras ŠAFERIS,
Rape and buckwheat honey allergy in relation to heat treatment
,
Acta medica Lituanica: Vol. 17 No. 3-4 (2010)