Abstract 5519
Background
The elderly (above 65 years) have become the leading population of our society. Their multitude of healthcare chronic problems demands palliative care and therefore Palliative Care problems and needs (PCPN) assessment.
Methods
A quantitative study using structured questionnaires [PNPC, Mini – Mental State Examination (MMSE), demographic and clinical characteristics] was conducted through December 2018 – February 2019, at internal medicine wards of a public general hospital. Patients with MMSE<24, at the end of life and with recent surgery were excluded. A translated in Hellenic language short-form version of PCPN used assessing Palliative Care Problems and Need for Professional Care. The PCPN is a 33 items 3-point Likert type scale that covers 8 domains: Activities of daily living (ADL/IADL), Physical symptoms (PS), Autonomy (A), Social (SI), Psychological (PI), Spiritual issues (Sp), Financial problems (FP) and Need for information (NI). The level of statistical significance was set at 0.05.
Results
Sample consisted of 150 patients (51% men) with mean age 75.6 years old (SD = 10.1). The cancer diagnosis was 40% mostly colon cancer (38%) and for non-cancer patients hypertension (62.2%). No statistical differences were found between cancer and non cancer patients for the demographic and clinical characteristics (p > 0.05). The mean MMSE scare was 27.2 (SD = 2) in patients with cancer and 27.6 (SD = 1.9) in patients with no cancer (p = 0.313). Significantly greater scores were found on the ADL/IADL (p=.012 - p=.001), A (p=.050 - p=.002), SI (p=.007 - p=.004) and Sp (p=.014 - p=.001) in the cancer group for both problems and needs for care. Additionally, the cancer patients reported statistically significant higher need for professional care for FP (p=.022). No statistically significant differences were found for PS, PI and NI (p>.050).
Conclusions
Elderly hospitalized cancer patients have more palliative care problems and needs for care at daily living, social, spiritual and financial issues than those with no cancer. Hence, nurses should focus on meeting these needs, based on the principles of PC.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
The authors.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.
Resources from the same session
4369 - Biomarker testing of lung cancer in Spain
Presenter: Delvys Rodriguez Abreu
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract
603 - Mendelian Randomization Study of Alzheimer's Disease and Lung Cancer
Presenter: Huaqiang Zhou
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract
4462 - Spanish registry of thoracic tumors (TTR): Interim analyses of comorbidities, risk associations, personal and family history of cancer
Presenter: Rafael Lopez Castro
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract
3957 - Pleural effusion TGF-beta is highly diagnostic and prognostic in malignant pleural mesothelioma
Presenter: Paul Stockhammer
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract
3583 - Immune microenvironment modulation by p14/ARF in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma
Presenter: Giulia Pasello
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract
4255 - Tumor Treating Fields plus chemotherapy for first-line malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM): radiological responses in the STELLAR trial
Presenter: Federica Grosso
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract
1803 - Effects of Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields; 150 kHz) and Cisplatin or Pemetrexed Combination Therapy on Mesothelioma cells In Vitro and In Vivo
Presenter: Mijal Munster
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract
2660 - Real world use of systemic therapy in elderly patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM)
Presenter: Susana Cedres
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract
3150 - Pemetrexed/Cisplatin versus Gemcitabine/Cisplatin as first-line treatment for Egyptian patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma
Presenter: Mohamed Alorabi
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract
4319 - Accuracy of pathologic evaluation for thymic epithelial tumors in an Italian reference Centre
Presenter: Giulia Galli
Session: Poster Display session 1
Resources:
Abstract