Cent Eur J Nurs Midw 2015, 6(1):185-190 | DOI: 10.15452/CEJNM.2015.06.0002

Occurrence of annoying symptoms of patients with cancer

Radka Kurucová1,*, Katarína Žiaková1, Elena Gurková2, Gabriela Šrámeková3
1 Department of Nursing, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia
2 Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Care, University of Presov in Presov, Slovakia
3 Palliative Ward, Hospital with out-patient clinic in Trstená, Slovakia

Aim: To determine symptoms those occur by patients with cancer.

Design: A cross-sectional survey.

Methods: The sample of research consisted of 100 patients with cancer. We used Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (MSAS) to evaluate the symptoms. This Scale determines 32 symptoms in three subscales (physic, psychic symptoms, and complete distress) focused on frequency, intensity and distress of symptoms of Likert Scale 1-4.

Results: The research results demonstrate that in terms of frequency, intensity and distress the patients most frequently suffer pain (4.30 ± 3.30), despite of all the pain treatment options. The other symptoms that patients encountered include nausea (3.52 ± 2.70), restless sleep (3.92 ± 3.48), anxiety (3.81 ± 3.55) and feelings of sadness (1.30 ± 0.22). In terms of disease severity, we had greater incidence of symptoms in patients with stage 3 - cancer metastatic disease (p ≤ 0.05). Our research also confirmed the correlation between the occurrence of symptoms and duration of illness. Greater incidence of symptoms has been reported in patients with longer lasting disease, in most cases, end-stage disease (p ≤ 0.05).

Conclusion: A key part of palliative care is minimizing of annoying physical, psychological, social and spiritual symptoms of patients. Assessment of the annoying symptoms in clinical practice allows the planning and implementation of effective interventions to promote quality of life of patients and their families in palliative care.

Keywords: annoying symptoms, cancer, palliative care

Received: July 7, 2014; Accepted: October 15, 2014; Published: March 30, 2015  Show citation

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Kurucová R, Žiaková K, Gurková E, Šrámeková G. Occurrence of annoying symptoms of patients with cancer. Central European Journal of Nursing and Midwifery. 2015;6(1):185-190. doi: 10.15452/CEJNM.2015.06.0002.
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