Prevalence of Cancer Patients Requiring Palliative Care in Outpatient Clinics in a Tertiary Hospital in Southern Thailand

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of patients requiring palliative care in outpatient clinics and associated factors.Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted by retrospectively reviewing the electronic medical records of cancer patients visiting the outpatient clinics in the major tertiary care institution in southern Thailand during 1 January– 31 December 2018 from the Hospital Information System. The Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool in Low Income Settings (SPICT-LISTM) was used to determine if the patients would benefit from palliative care. Forward stepwise multiple logistic regression was used to assess associations between potential factors and the need for palliative care.Results: Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety medical records were reviewed. 3,628 (36.3%) patients were male and 6,324 (63.3%) were female with a median age of 58.7 years. The prevalence of cancer patients requiring palliative care according to the SPICT-LISTM criteria was 7.8%. Age was the main factor associated with palliative care need [odds ratio (OR)=1.03, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.02-1.04]. Muslim patients had a significantly higher requirement for palliative care compared with Buddhist patients (OR=1.62, 95% CI=1.09-2.37). Although not statistically significant, malignant neoplasms of bone and articular cartilage were associated with higher palliative care need than lip, oral cavity and pharynx cancers (OR=5.35, 95% CI=0.69-29.40).Conclusion: Muslim religion and having malignant neoplasms of bone and articular cartilage were associated with the highest palliative care need. Future studies should focus on more in-depth examination of the reasons these groups have higher needs for palliative care.

The Prevalence of Cancer Patients Requiring Palliative Care and Its Associated Factors at St. Paul Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…The result of the study is in line with the study done in Thailand. 23 This might be due to multiple medical conditions elderly people face such as chronic disease and different musculoskeletal diseases. 25 , 26 The results of the study also showed that male patients had a significantly higher requirement for palliative care compared to female patients, which was five times that of their counterpart (AOR=5.31, 95% CI=1.68–11.79).…”

“…But this result is different from the study done in Thailand that showed malignant neoplasms of bone and articular cartilage required higher palliative care than other types of cancer. 23 This difference might be due to the different types of cancers found at the Saint Paul hospital. The reason nasopharyngeal cancer needs palliative care more than other types of cancer might be due to its impact on breathing, speaking, and hearing.…”

“…22 In this study, the overall prevalence of palliative care need by SPICT-LIS was 10.6%, which is greater than the study done in Tertiary Hospital in Southern Thailand, which was 7.8%. 23 This might be due to differences in technology, economy of the country, and the recent treatment given for cancer patients. The result of this study is in line with the study done by Hamano, which was 9.2%.…”

Use of the Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool (Spict™) for End-of-life Discussions: a Scoping Review

“…The tool has been translated into more than eight languages including Spanish (SPICT-ES™) 17 , Italian (SPICT-IT™) 19 , German (SPICT-DE™) 32 and Japanese (SPICT-J™) 20 although not all versions have been formally validated. [25][26][27]33 Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that the SPICT™ may facilitate changes in the goals of care and documentation of end of life care planning and patient wishes. Incidentally the SPICT™ appears to be positively received by clinicians with some suggesting that the tool provides a common language for clinicians when collaborating to identify palliative care needs and provide palliative care.…”

Identifying cancer patients who received palliative care using the SPICT-LIS in medical records: a rule-based algorithm and text-mining technique

“…In 2021, the SPICT-LIS was translated into Thai, with cross-cultural validation by Sripaew et al and subsequently tested using real-world data in a retrospective study by Fumaneeshoat et al [ 7 ] using the Thai-translated SPICT-LIS to identify cancer patients who may have benefited from palliative care in Thailand. They found that 7.8% of 9,990 patients with cancer might have qualified for palliative care [ 8 ]. However, it is challenging to evaluate all cancer patients using an instrument such as the SPICT-LIS to evaluate which patients would benefit from palliative care in real life due to limited resources, healthcare providers, and knowledge.…”