The Role of Age in Change in Unmet Supportive Care Needs in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients During Transition From Hospital to Home

Abstract

Comprehensive assessment in care needs especially in the health system and information and physical and daily living domains before discharge is recommended to design personalized education programs before discharge.

Supportive Care and Unmet Needs in Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer Patients: Screening and Related Factors

“…Patients in our study perceived higher information needs, particularly those who received at least two cycles of initial outpatient chemotherapy within the last three months. These findings are consistent with earlier studies [14,15]. Patients had a high level of information needs, related to managing illness and side effects, during transition from hospital to home, and when their cancer was under control or diminishing.…”

“…Information needs were highest at cancer diagnosis, while physical and daily living needs were highest during treatment [14]. Unmet needs are associated with younger age [15], advanced cancer stage [16], more symptom distress [15], higher levels of anxiety [15,17] and depression [15], better physical functioning [15], and being single or widowed [17]. Although previous studies have explored these issues, most research has focused on unmet needs [14,15]; hepatocellular carcinoma patients [15], gastric cancer [9,14], and head and neck cancer [17,18] who undergoing treatment, and those who above-mentioned study subjects who were hospitalized.…”

“…Unmet needs are associated with younger age [15], advanced cancer stage [16], more symptom distress [15], higher levels of anxiety [15,17] and depression [15], better physical functioning [15], and being single or widowed [17]. Although previous studies have explored these issues, most research has focused on unmet needs [14,15]; hepatocellular carcinoma patients [15], gastric cancer [9,14], and head and neck cancer [17,18] who undergoing treatment, and those who above-mentioned study subjects who were hospitalized. Despite the fact that previous studies have explored these issues, most research has focused on patients in treatment who had gastric cancer [14], hepatocellular carcinoma [15], and oral cancer [17,18] in Taiwan.…”

“…Although previous studies have explored these issues, most research has focused on unmet needs [14,15]; hepatocellular carcinoma patients [15], gastric cancer [9,14], and head and neck cancer [17,18] who undergoing treatment, and those who above-mentioned study subjects who were hospitalized. Despite the fact that previous studies have explored these issues, most research has focused on patients in treatment who had gastric cancer [14], hepatocellular carcinoma [15], and oral cancer [17,18] in Taiwan. There has been a lack of study exploring the symptom distress, social support, unmet needs, and supportive care needs among gastric cancer, pancreatic cancer, and cholangiocarcinoma patients.…”

“…Insufficient attention has been devoted to this important topic. On the basis of the literature review, we hypothesized that these patients may also experience symptom distress [15], psychological distress [15,16], and insufficient of social support [17], resulting in unmet needs while receiving outpatient chemotherapy among gastric cancer, pancreatic cancer, and cholangiocarcinoma patients, especially younger patients [15] and those who had advanced cancer stage [16]. Therefore, the purposes of this study were to (1) examine the levels of gastrointestinal (GI) symptom distress, social support, and supportive care needs; (2) screen the priorities of unmet supportive care needs; and (3) identify the factors associated with supportive care needs among UGI cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.…”