Relationship among symptom clusters, quality of life, and treatment-specific optimism in patients with cancer

Abstract

PurposeThere is increasing evidence that disease and therapy-related symptoms frequently co-occur in so-called symptom clusters (SCs), which may significantly impair quality of life in patients with cancer. Although psychosocial resources may play pivotal roles in maintaining or improving quality of life, they have been neglected in SC research. Therefore, we aim to identify SCs and their relative impact on quality of life when psychosocial resources are accounted for.MethodsPatients with cancer (n = 304) undergoing chemotherapy or chemo-radiation therapy participated in a cross-sectional survey consisting of measures assessing symptoms, quality of life, resilience, treatment-specific optimism (TSO), and social support. Exploratory factor analyses and multiple regression analyses were used to identify SCs and significant explanatory variables of overall quality of life.ResultsFatigue-pain, anxiety-depression, cancer therapy-related toxicity, and nausea-vomiting clusters were identified. In our final model, the fatigue-pain cluster (β = − 0.41, p < 0.001), nausea-vomiting cluster (β = − 0.28, p < 0.001), TSO (β = 0.21, p < 0.001), and receiving chemo-radiation treatment (β = − 0.11, p = 0.03) accounted for 44% of variance in overall quality of life. However, the identified SCs explained quality of life in patients with varying levels of TSO to a different extent.ConclusionsOur findings indicate that the TSO of patients may be a major factor to consider in managing SCs, because—depending on its level—different SCs and even clusters encompassing comparatively less distressing symptoms (i.e., cancer therapy-related toxicities) may strongly affect quality of life.

Symptom clusters and related factors in oesophageal cancer patients 3 months after surgery

“…One of the performance indicators of unpleasant symptoms is quality of life (QoL). In addition, empirical studies also show that critical patient‐reported symptoms depend not only on objective demographic characteristics and disease‐related information, but also on several psychosocial resources that have been consistently linked with patient outcomes (Matzka, Köck‐Hódi, Jahn, & Mayer, ; Wu, Tsai, et al, ; Wu, Qin, et al, ). As an important component of positive psychology, resilience is a dynamic psychosocial resource of adapting well in the face of adversity or stress.…”

Symptom Clusters and Health-related Quality of Life in Chinese patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

“…It integrates the complex physiological and psychosocial aspects of a person’s whole life (Moy et al, 2009). Symptom clusters that significantly impact HRQoL in cancer patients have been identified in numerous cancer studies (Hwang, Cho, & Yoo, 2016; Matzka, Kock-Hodi, Jahn, & Mayer, 2018; Rha & Lee, 2017), which have advanced interventions aimed to promote disease management and HRQoL(Golan-Vered & Pud, 2013; Yennurajalingam, Williams, Chisholm, & Bruera, 2016). It is widely recognized that HRQoL is impaired in patients with COPD (Wacker et al, 2016).…”

Symptom Clusters’ Content, Stability and Correlation with the Quality of Life in a Heterogeneous Group of Cancer Patients: A Large-Scale Longitudinal Study

“…No permission is needed for its use, and it was completed by the researchers. These tools were used in this study because they are the most used data measurement tool in symptom cluster research (Al Qadire & Al Khalaileh, 2016;Matzka et al, 2018;Skerman et al, 2012;Yesilbalkan et al, 2020), there are available and valid in Arabic, and they are easy and free to use for research purposes.…”