scholarly journals Associations Between The Spiritual Well-Being (EORTC QLQ-SWB32) and Quality of Life (EORTC QLQ-C30) of Patients Receiving Palliative Care for Cancer in Cyprus

Author(s):  
Maria Kyranou ◽  
Marianna Nicolaou

Abstract Background: Spiritual well-being is increasingly investigated in relation to patients’ perceived quality of life and is generally thought as having the potential to support patients with cancer who receive palliative care. Until recently, questionnaires used to assess spiritual well-being were developed mainly in the US. The purpose of this study was to translate and use the EORTC- SWB32, a newly developed tool, validated recently in 4 continents, 14 countries, and in 10 languages, to explore relationships of spiritual well-being with quality of life in patients with cancer.Methods: One hundred four patients participated in this study with an average age of 59 years. Of those, 79% were dealing with metastatic cancer. Data collection took place in three oncology centers from two large cities in Cyprus. The acceptability of the translated items was tested. Two questionnaires were employed for the assessment of quality of life and spiritual well-being, developed by the same organization: the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the EORTC QLQ-SWB32. The scores for each tool were analyzed separately and correlations between the two measures were explored. Results: Patients found the items of the SWB32 tool easy to understand and answer. They attested that filling the questionnaire prompted thoughts about their own spirituality. The mean score for Global Spiritual Well-Being was 60.4 (SD=23.7) and it was associated with the mean scores in the scales “Emotional functioning” and “Cognitive functioning” of the EORTC-QOL-C30 (0.42 and 0.40 respectively, p<0.01). The mean score for the “Relationship with God” scale (74.9, SD=29.7) reported by the Cypriot patients is high and compatible with the homogenous spiritual orientation of the island’s population.Conclusions: All subscales of the SWB32 tool demonstrated good internal consistency in this study. Significant associations were observed between dimensions of quality of life and spiritual well-being. Additionally, the participants found the items easy to answer consistent with the tool’s suggested clinical utility which lays the ground for the application of targeted interventions to enhance spiritual well-being.

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Kyranou ◽  
Marianna Nicolaou

Abstract Background Spiritual well-being is increasingly investigated in relation to patients’ perceived quality of life and is generally thought as having the potential to support patients with cancer who receive palliative care. Until recently, questionnaires used to assess spiritual well-being were developed mainly in the US. The purpose of this study was to translate and use the EORTC- SWB32, a newly developed tool, validated recently in 4 continents, 14 countries, and in 10 languages, to explore relationships of spiritual well-being with quality of life in patients with cancer. Methods One hundred four patients participated in this study with an average age of 59 years. Of those, 79% were dealing with metastatic cancer. Data collection took place in three oncology centers from two large cities in Cyprus. The acceptability of the translated items was tested. Two questionnaires were employed for the assessment of quality of life and spiritual well-being, developed by the same organization: the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the EORTC QLQ-SWB32. The scores for each tool were analyzed separately and correlations between the two measures were explored. Results Patients found the items of the SWB32 tool easy to understand and answer. They attested that filling the questionnaire prompted thoughts about their own spirituality. The mean score for Global Spiritual Well-Being was 60.4 (SD = 23.7) and it was associated with the mean scores in the scales “Emotional functioning” and “Cognitive functioning” of the EORTC-QOL-C30 (0.42 and 0.40 respectively, p < 0.01). The mean score for the “Relationship with God” scale (74.9, SD = 29.7) reported by the Cypriot patients is high and compatible with the homogenous spiritual orientation of the island’s population. Conclusions All subscales of the SWB32 tool demonstrated good internal consistency in this study. Significant associations were observed between dimensions of quality of life and spiritual well-being. Additionally, the participants found the items easy to answer consistent with the tool’s suggested clinical utility which lays the ground for the application of targeted interventions to enhance spiritual well-being.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026921632199472
Author(s):  
Natalia Salamanca-Balen ◽  
Thomas V Merluzzi ◽  
Man Chen

Background: The concept of hope is an important theme in chronic illness and palliative care and has been associated with increased psycho-spiritual well-being and quality of life. Psycho-spiritual interventions have been described in this population, but no systematic review of hope-enhancing interventions or hopelessness-reducing interventions has been conducted for persons with palliative care diseases. Aim: To describe and assess the effectiveness of interventions in palliative care that measure hope and/or hopelessness as an outcome. Design: This systematic review and meta-analysis was pre-registered (Prospero ID: CRD42019119956). Data sources: Electronic databases, journals, and references were searched. We used the Cochrane criteria to assess the risk of bias within studies. Results: Thirty-five studies (24 randomized controlled trials, 5 quasi-experimental, 6 pre-post studies) involving a total of 3296 palliative care patients were included. Compared with usual/standard cancer care alone, interventions significantly increased hope levels at a medium effect size ( g = 0.61, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.28–0.93) but did not significantly reduce hopelessness ( g = −0.08, 95% CI = −0.18 to 0.02). It was found that interventions significantly increase spirituality ( g = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.02–1.37) and decrease depression ( g = −0.29, 95% CI = −0.51 to −0.07), but had no significant effect over anxiety, quality of life, and symptom burden. Overall, quality of evidence across the included studies was rated as low. Conclusions: Evidence suggests that interventions can be effective in increasing hope in palliative care patients.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 954-965
Author(s):  
Monisha Kabir ◽  
Jill L Rice ◽  
Shirley H Bush ◽  
Peter G Lawlor ◽  
Colleen Webber ◽  
...  

Background: There is evidence that psychosocial and spiritual interventions of short duration, such as reminiscence therapy, provide positive impacts on quality of life and emotional and existential well-being in adults receiving palliative care. Aim: To determine (1) the feasibility of integrating ‘LIFEView’, a video-based software with >1600 videos of world destinations, in palliative care settings, and (2) positive, neutral or harmful effects of using ‘LIFEView’ videos. Design: A mixed-methods pre–post intervention pilot study was conducted to collect feasibility and preliminary data on physical and psychological symptoms, physiological indicators, spiritual well-being and aspects of quality of life. Setting/participants: Adult patients on an inpatient palliative care unit or receiving care from a community palliative care consultation team who were capable of providing consent and completing the outcome measures were eligible participants. Results: Overall, 27/41 (66%) participants took part in the study. Feasibility criteria, including participant acceptability, low participant burden, tool completion rate and retention rate, were fulfilled, though challenges were experienced with recruitment. Modest improvements, though non-significant, were shown on preliminary data collected on physical and psychological symptoms using the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System–revised, spiritual well-being assessed by the 12-item Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy – Spiritual Well-Being scale and physiological measurements. Qualitative analysis revealed five themes: motivations for using ‘LIFEView’, perceptions of the technology, reminiscence, ‘LIFEView’ as an adaptable technology and ongoing or future use. Conclusion: A future adequately powered study to investigate the impacts of ‘LIFEView’ on patient well-being and quality of life appears to be feasible.


Blood ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 126 (23) ◽  
pp. 5584-5584
Author(s):  
Debora Capelli ◽  
Liviana Giostra ◽  
Denise Maravalle ◽  
Pietro Leoni ◽  
Attilio Olivieri

Abstract Late effects and quality of life (QoL) in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) long term adult survivors represent an unexplored field of interest. We prospectively evaluated late effects and dynamic QoL in 44 and 29 cured AML patients (17 <60 years, and 12 >60 years), treated at our department between 1997 and 2010 (7 Allogeneic, 16 Autologous Transplant, 21 chemotherapy alone). We administered EORTC QLQ-C30 and FACT-AN questionnaires at two different time points with a median interval of 29 months (range: 12-34 months). We stratifyed QoL scores by age at diagnosis, performance status (PS), Sorror Index, kind of leukemia treatment, comorbidity at diagnosis. We observed a worsening of emotional (-9.03; p= 0.04) and cognitive (-6.94; p= 0.05) EORTC scale scores, while FACTG (+2.9; p=0.03), emotional (+1.1; p= 0.04) and Functional (+2.25; p=0.001) well being FACT scores increased. Multivariate analysis showed that older patients had worse EORTC QLQ-C30 physical and emotional scale scores and higher values of pain symptoms in comparison to younger counterpart, with RR of 20.1 (p = 0.001), 22.7 ( p <0.04) and 18.4 (p=0.03) respectively. Elderly patients also had lower Total Outcome Index and FACT-An subscale scores (RR: 11.9, p= 0.02; and 8.77, p= 0.04 respectively). Sorror index > 2 was related to lower EORTC QLQ-C30 social scale and dyspnea scores (RR: 32.5; p=0.001 and 21.7; p=0.001 respectively) and FACT-An functional well being values (RR=3.9; p=0.001). We evaluated late effects occurring in 44 patients, since the third month after the end of treatment, with a median follow-up of 70 months (range: 12-166 months). The most frequent grade II-IV late toxicity was cardiac (3 arythmia, 9 cardiomyopathy) with 89% incidence in patients with Sorror HCT-CI score>2 at diagnosis vs 8.8% in the remaining patients and 0%, 20% and 55.5% in patients receiving respectively Daunorubicin, Idarubicin and at least two different anthracyclines. Sorror Index>2 was the only factor significantly predicting cardiotoxicity at the multivariate analysis with a RR of 82.7 (p=0.001). Twelve patients developped a transient hemochromatosis secondary to transfusions, treated with phlebotomy in 3 cases. Three patients (2 males and 1 female) had been fertile; all female patients developped menopause after Transplant. Four patients had secondary neoplasia consisting of Multiple Myeloma, breast cancer, myelodisplasia and axillary sarcoma. Our study underlines the role of Sorror Index at diagnosis in defining patients eligibility to cardio-prophylactic therapy. The analysis of larger series of cured AML patients are strongly needed in order to define guidelines for reducing long term treatment AML toxicity. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Open Medicine ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 348-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hubert Jocham ◽  
Theo Dassen ◽  
Guy Widdershoven ◽  
Ruud Halfens

AbstractPalliative care aims at improving the patient’s quality of life. The assessment of this quality of life (QoL) is crucial for the evaluation of palliative care outcome. Many patients require hospital admissions for symptom control during their cancer journey and most of them die in hospitals, although they would like to stay at home until the end of their lives. In 1986, the European Organization for Research and Treatment (EORTC) initiated a research programme to develop an integrated, modular approach for evaluating the quality of life of patients participating in international clinical trials. This questionnaire measures cancer patients’ physical, psychological and social functions and was used in a wide range of clinical cancer trials with large numbers of research groups and also in various other non-trial studies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties, especially the reliability, validity and applicability of the EORTC QLQ-C30 in a German sample of terminally ill cancer patients receiving palliative care in different settings. The questionnaire was well accepted in the present patient population. Scale reliability was good (pre-treatment 0.80) especially for the functional scale. The results support the reliability and validity of the QLQ-C30 (version 3.0) as a measure of the health-related quality of life in German cancer patients receiving palliative care treatment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (6) ◽  
pp. 611-617
Author(s):  
Gordana Repic ◽  
Suncica Ivanovic ◽  
Cedomirka Stanojevic ◽  
Sanja Trgovcevic

Background/Aim. Colorectal cancer and its treatment can have a negative impact on the quality of life which has become an important outcome measure for cancer patients. The aim of this work was assessment of psychological and spiritual dimension of the quality of life in colostomy patients, regarding the gender and age. Methods. This is a cross-sectional study conducted at the Abdominal Surgery Polyclinic in the Clinical Canter of Vojvodina among colostomy patients operated between January 2010 and June 2011. The instrument used in this study was Quality of Life Questionnaire for a Patient with an Ostomy (QOL-O). Results. Majority of respondents were male (M:F = 50.7% : 49.3%). The age ranged between 36?86 years. Respondents did not report difficulties in adjustment to stoma, but their great difficulty was to look at it and the sense of depression and anxiety. The care of stoma was worse perceived by younger respondents (p = 0.014). Respondents were mostly satisfied with their memorizing ability and having the sense of control. The lowest score was found in sensing satisfaction or enjoyment in life. The age had a significant impact on positive aspects of psychological well-being (p < 0.05). Higher scores were found among younger age groups. The mean score of spiritual well-being (6.47 ? 3.01) was lower than the mean score of psychological well-being (7.76 ? 2.35). There were no statistically significant differences regarding gender (t = -0.738, df = 65, p = 0.463) or age (F = 1.307, p = 0.280). Conclusion. Psychological and spiritual well-being in colostomy patients appeared to be at satisfactory level, but it is necessary to provide tailor made support in order to prevent and resolve negative responses to stoma.


Blood ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 132 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 527-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Stanworth ◽  
Sally Killick ◽  
Zoe McQuilten ◽  
Marina Karakantza ◽  
Heather Smethurst ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Red cell transfusion is the most common intervention in the management of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Transfusion practice in MDS is typically characterized by transfusion of multiple (usually 2 - 4) units every 3 - 4 weeks, but there is no supporting evidence for efficacy of this strategy. The aim of this trial was to explore the feasibility of (and adherence to) two standardized transfusion algorithms (liberal vs. restrictive), in order to inform future research. This trial is aligned with a Canadian study (NCT02099669). Methods The study was undertaken in the UK and Australia/New Zealand (ISRCTN26088319). Inclusion criteria were MDS patients with <20% bone marrow blasts, who were transfusion dependent (at least 1 red cell transfusion episode per month in the last 8 weeks) and receiving no additional MDS therapy. Randomization was to one of two red cell transfusion strategies over a 12-week period after a 4-week run-in to achieve a Hb >100 g/l prior to initiation of the allocated transfusion arm: (1) Restrictive (control arm) transfusion strategy to maintain hemoglobin concentration (Hb) between 85 and 100g/L; 2 units of packed red cell unit transfusions were transfused when Hb was <80g/L and 1 unit of packed red cell unit transfusions when Hb is 80-85g/L. (2) Liberal transfusion strategy to maintain Hb between 110 and 125g/L; 2 units of packed red cell unit transfusions were transfused when Hb was <105g/L and 1 unit of packed red cell unit transfusions when Hb is 105-110g/L. Primary outcomes were: percentage of pre-transfusion Hb concentrations below the target range of the assigned strategy, and achievement of at least a 20g/L difference between the mean pre-transfusion Hb in the two transfusion groups. It was pre-specified that the study would be considered feasible if compliance to the pre-transfusion target Hb was ≥70%, with evidence of a difference in Hb between the two arms. Secondary outcomes included quality of life questionnaires (EQ-5D-5L and EORTC QLQ-C30). The primary analysis was intention to treat and these results are reported. Results 38 patients were randomized from 12 hospitals (n=20, restrictive; n=18 liberal). Median age was 79 years (IQR 69-82). Although generally well matched, there were some minor imbalances in baseline characteristics (ECOG status, WHO subtype, prior iron chelation treatment and heart failure medication). Thirty-four participants received at least one transfusion during the trial and were included in the 'compliance to treatment threshold' analysis. Percentage compliance (95% confidence interval) of pre-transfusion Hb being below the target range of the RBC transfusion threshold assigned were 86% (75-94) and 99% (95-100) for the restrictive and liberal arms respectively. As compliance was ≥70% in both arms, the study was declared feasible. The mean (standard deviation (SD)) pre-transfusion Hb for the restrictive and liberal arms were 80 (6) g/l and 97 (7) g/l respectively, for a significant difference between the two groups (p<0.0001). Figure 1 shows the mean (±SD) Hb by week for all randomized participants by treatment arm. The total number of red cell units transfused was 82 in the restrictive group and 192 in the liberal group. Of 8 serious adverse events reported, 1 was deemed potentially related to transfusion. Compliance for completion of EQ-5D-5L and EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaires was good (between 70 - 80%). Although interpretation of quality of life analyses is exploratory, the numbers of participants achieving a (pre-defined) clinically meaningful increase showed small improvements favoring the liberal policy across the following domains (EQ-5D-5L descriptive; EORTC QLQ-C30: physical functioning and global health score). Discussion These results of this multicenter trial in an older out-patient based population support the feasibility of progressing to a definitive trial of different red cell transfusion strategies, in order to evaluate the comparative effectiveness and safety for clinically relevant outcomes of a restrictive vs liberal transfusion policy for transfusion-dependent MDS. The large difference in units transfused between the two arms challenges perceived dogma and supports the need for a cost-effectiveness component in follow-on trials. (Funding: NHSBT, ANZSBT). Disclosures Buckstein: Celgene: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding.


2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (29_suppl) ◽  
pp. 235-235
Author(s):  
Grace Meijuan Yang ◽  
Yung Ying Tan ◽  
Yin Bun Cheung ◽  
Dennis Dignadice ◽  
Amy Lim ◽  
...  

235 Background: Spiritual care (SC) is a vital part of palliative care (PC) but its provision is still not routine. We studied the effect of a SC training program for staff on patient quality of life (QOL) and spiritual wellbeing (SPS), as measured by the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy – Spiritual Well-Being (FACIT-Sp). Methods: This study was conducted at two sites: a PC consultative service in an acute hospital and a home PC service. The program comprised a 30 min training session for nurses and doctors on using the FICA tool for spiritual assessment and subsequent referral to a medical social worker (MSW) if needed, and a 60min training session with the MSWs on how to manage spiritual problems. A prospective cluster-controlled trial was done across 7 clusters. FACIT-Sp comprises 27 items for QOL (FACT-G) in the 4 domains and 12 items for SPS. This was administered at T1: upon referral to the palliative care service and T2: after 3 clinical visits by the PC team (doctor, nurse or MSW visits). Results: QOL data from 142 participants (69 intervention and 73 control) were analyzed. There appeared to be some benefit of the program on all domains of QOL as well as SPS, although only the FACT-G score achieved statistical significance. After further statistical adjustment for scores at T1 (to account for any regression to the mean), FACT-G score remained practically significant (p value 0.076). Conclusions: A brief SC training program for staff (30 min for nurses and doctors, 60 min for MSWs) appeared to result in some improved QOL and SPS for patients. However, a larger sample size will be needed to estimate the degree of benefit more accurately. [Table: see text]


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