Evaluation of Symptoms In Patients With Cancer Receiving Chemotherapy From The Perspective Of Palliative Care In Kashan, Iran, 2017

Introduction & Aim: Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy are usually suffering from common problems. The lack of knowledge of the personnel of these problems causes suffering, decreases the quality of life of patients and families, and imposes additional costs on the community.Palliative care is an approach that helps nurses to properly assess, evaluate and resolve problems and symptoms of the patient. Method: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study that was performed in 186 patients with cancer who underwent chemotherapy in Kashan Hospital in 2017.Data were collected using a researcher-designed questionnaire. The data were analyzed by spss-version 13 using Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis descriptive statistics. Results: Most of the subjects were fifty years old(58.1%),mostly married(83.3%),had a history of chemotherapy(38.7%),radiation therapy history(38.2%),surgery(57%) and less than 5 sessions Received chemotherapy(40.3%).The most common symptom was palliative care and fatigue(84.4%) and the least was vomiting(24.2%).The prevalence of care need pain(26.3%),dyspnea(23.3%), anorexia(25.2%), insomnia(25.9%),fatigue (23.3%),constipation(22.2%),nausea(28.7%),vomiting(28.9%),cough( 26.9%), oral ulcers(29.5%) and depression(23.5%) in breast cancer and urinary problems(24.2%),diarrhea(35.3%) in colon cancer were higher than other diseases. The average number of symptoms in those with a history of surgery due to cancer was higher(7 ± 2.6) and the mean number of symptoms in breast cancer patients was higher than other cancers(7.4 ± 2.5).There was no significant relationship between the number of symptoms and other demographic information(P> 0.05). Conclusion: Patients with chemotherapy suffer from many complications that can be irreparable in their lack of attention. Relief care is an appropriate and coherent way to handle these patients.

Keywords:

cancer , palliative care , symptom