Use of a symptom diary during chemotherapy: A mixed-methods evaluation of the patient perspective

Coolbrandt, Annemarie; Steffens, Ester; Wildiers, Hans; Bruyninckx, Erika; Verslype, Chris; Milisen, Koen

doi:10.1016/j.ejon.2017.09.003

Cited by 16 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…On the contrary, higher burden of participation was expressed in regard to the symptom diary and the fact that it had to be filled in every day for 3 weeks. Coolbrandt et al described that one third of patients found filling in a symptom diary every day too burdensome [42]. Despite the experienced high burden, we received complete symptom diaries of 90% of the participants indicating high compliance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Despite the experienced high burden, we received complete symptom diaries of 90% of the participants indicating high compliance. Such diaries have shown to support patients in symptom management which reduces symptom burden [30,42,43]. Our participants experienced the diary as a useful tool to track symptoms and communicating this to the oncologist.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Lessons learned from a randomized controlled trial on a home delivered meal service in advanced cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy: a pilot study

et al. 2021

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Background Performing a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in the field of nutrition is challenging and success highly depends on understanding the factors that influence recruitment and dropout of participants. Our aim was to assess the feasibility of a RCT that evaluated a home delivered meal service in advanced cancer patients while receiving chemotherapy. Methods This pilot RCT aimed to enroll 20 participants who were randomized into the home delivered meal service group or usual care group. Study procedures took place before chemotherapy (T0), 3 weeks after T0 (T1), 6 weeks after T0 (T2) and 3 months after T2 (T3). All information regarding recruitment, dropout and study procedures was recorded. Patient satisfaction was assessed by in-depth interviews. Results Over 7 months, 20 of 41 approached patients (49%) were included, followed by a dropout rate of 35%. At baseline, hand grip strength (n = 8/16), the Short Physical Performance Battery (n = 12/16) and nutritional intake (n = 8/16) had the highest rate of missing values. Study procedures were not experienced as burdensome and planning of these procedures in line with fixed hospital appointments contributed to this low burden. Keeping the symptom diary was mentioned as being burdensome. Conclusions It is feasible to conduct a RCT on a home delivered meal service in advanced cancer patients during chemotherapy, although recruitment is challenging. Close contact of patients with recruiting personnel is essential to sustain motivation. To increase compliance with the study protocol it is important to carefully instruct participants on how to complete questionnaires and to emphasize to use these in the communication with their practitioners. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03382171.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Lessons learned from a randomized controlled trial on a home delivered meal service in advanced cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy: a pilot study

et al. 2021

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“…[2] Moreover, QoL is increasingly included as a primary endpoint, and it also plays an increasingly important role in pivotal studies. [1,[5][6][7] Nevertheless, QoL is rarely included as an endpoint or control component in regular medical services in clinics at this moment. So far, there is no data on a longitudinal collection and interpretation of HR-QoL data beyond studies.…”

Section: Behavioral Referencementioning

confidence: 99%

Quality of Life as an Indicator for Care Delivery in Clinical Oncology Using FHIR

Beutter

Ross²,

Werner³

et al. 2021

German Medical Data Sciences: Bringing Data to Life

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Introduction: Health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) as a parameter for patient well-being is becoming increasingly important.[1] Nevertheless, it is mainly used as an endpoint in studies rather than as an indicator for adjustments in therapy. In this paper we will present an approach to gradually integrate quality of life (QoL) as a control element into the care delivery of oncology. Concept: Acceptance, usability, interoperability and data protection were identified and integrated as key indicators for the development. As an initial approach, a questionnaire tool was developed to provide patients a simplified answering of questionnaires and physicians a clearer presentation of the results. Implementation: As communication standard HL7 FHIR was used and known security concepts like OpenID Concept were integrated. In a usability study, first results were achieved by asking patients in the waiting room to answer a questionnaire, which will be discussed with the physician in the appointment. This study was conducted in 2019 at theSLK Clinics Heilbronn and achieved 86% participation of all respondents with an average age of 67 years. Discussion: Although the evaluation study could prove positive results in usability and acceptance, it is necessary to aim for longitudinal surveys in order to include QoL as a control element in the therapy. However, a longitudinal survey through questionnaires leads to decreasing compliance and increasing response bias. [2] For this reason, the concept needs to be expanded. With sensors a continuous monitoring can be carried out and the data can be mapped to the individual, interpreted by machine learning. Conclusion: Questionnaires are a concept that has been successfully applied in studies for years. However, since care delivery poses different challenges, the integration of new concepts is inevitable. The authors are currently working on an extension of the use of questionnaires with patient generated data through sensors.

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“…ERAC is meant to reduce the burden of the perichemotherapy symptoms as much as possible with the introduction of some preconditioning methods. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the most common side‐effects which detrimentally affect patients using a symptom diary together with completion of an EORTC QLQ‐C30 questionnaire in order to evaluate their trajectories and interrelation 16,17 . A further objective of the study was to assess the impact of prolonging the use of low‐dosage dexamethasone on alleviating the symptom burden of chemotherapy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symptom trajectories during chemotherapy in patients with non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the function of prolonging low dose dexamethasone in promoting enhanced recovery after chemotherapy

Liu

Dong

et al. 2021

Thoracic Cancer

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Background Lung cancer, mainly non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Currently, chemotherapy is still the most significant treatment strategy for NSCLC. However, scant attention has been paid in previous studies to those patients who often experience various symptoms and discomfort during chemotherapy treatment cycles. Methods This study included 127 NSCLC patients who completed an EORTC QLQ‐C30 questionnaire and specifically designed symptom diary. Chi‐square test, factor analysis, Pearson correlation coefficient and hierarchical cluster analysis were used to perform multivariate analysis. Results We identified the top five most‐frequent symptoms within the chemotherapy cycle which included fatigue, insomnia, cough and sputum, appetite loss and hypodipsia. These symptoms were at a moderate level on chemotherapy treatment days 3–7, and were then reduced to a stable and lower level in the following two weeks. A statistically significant difference in adverse events (AEs) was found between 54 patients who received dexamethasone (treatment group) and the control group: fatigue (risk ratio [RR]: 1.48; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.120–1.961; p = 0.006), insomnia (RR: 1.34; 95% CI: 1.016–1.778; p = 0.038), cough and sputum (RR: 2.00; 95% CI: 1.484–2.695; p < 0.001), appetite loss (RR: 1.28; 95% CI: 0.959–1.696; p = 0.095). In total, 62 patients completed the EORTC QLQ‐C30 scale. The functioning scales of the treatment group were higher than the control population within positive effect sizes (ES: 0.1–0.8). Apart from diarrhea scales, most symptom scales were lower than the control group within negative effect sizes (ES: 0.1–0.9). Conclusions In this study we identified the top five most frequent post‐chemotherapy AEs in a chemotherapy treatment cycle and found that dexamethasone was well tolerated by NSCLC patients who received platinum‐based chemotherapy and substantially alleviated the symptom burden and improved the health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) of patients.

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Use of a symptom diary during chemotherapy: A mixed-methods evaluation of the patient perspective

Cited by 16 publications

References 38 publications

Lessons learned from a randomized controlled trial on a home delivered meal service in advanced cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy: a pilot study

Lessons learned from a randomized controlled trial on a home delivered meal service in advanced cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy: a pilot study

Quality of Life as an Indicator for Care Delivery in Clinical Oncology Using FHIR

Symptom trajectories during chemotherapy in patients with non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the function of prolonging low dose dexamethasone in promoting enhanced recovery after chemotherapy

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