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"I want to live, but ..." the desire to live and its physical, psychological, spiritual, and social factors among advanced cancer patients: evidence from the APPROACH study in India.
- Source :
- BMC Palliative Care; 8/31/2022, Vol. 21 Issue 1, p1-11, 11p
- Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- Background: The limited access to palliative care resources along with the social stigma around cancer largely explains the poor quality of life (QoL) of Indian advanced cancer patients. As advanced cancer patients with poor QoL often harbour a desire for hastened death (DHD), it is imperative to understand factors affecting DHD, or the desire to live (DTL) among advanced cancer patients in India. We aim to examine the relationship between DTL and physical, psychological, spiritual, and social factors measuring patients' QoL alongside their awareness of their late cancer stage. Methods: We surveyed 200 patients from a tertiary cancer hospital in India to collect their DTL, awareness of cancer stage, demographic characteristics, and standardized measures for patients' QoL. We used a linear probability regression model to quantify the association between these factors and patients' DTL among the final sample of 192 patients with no missing information for the variables of interest. Results: Among the various domains affecting cancer patients' QoL, we found that the pain severity score (ranging from 0 to 10) and psychological distress score (ranging from 0 to 42) are negatively associated with the DTL. One point increase in each score reduced the DTL by 2.2% (p < 0.05) and 0.7% (p < 0.05), respectively. Our results also showed that patients whose perceived socio-economic status (SES) is poor have a 16% (p < 0.05) lower probability of DTL, compared to those with higher SES (lower middle class, upper middle class, and wealthy). Controlling for caste, religion, gender, age, marital status and years of education, we found psychological distress is statistically higher among patients belonging to this bottom SES. Conclusions: We found that pain severity, psychological distress and perceived low SES are negatively associated with the desire to live in advanced cancer patients. Future research should focus on developing interventions to improve physical pain and psychological distress, particularly for patients who are socially and economically disadvantaged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- CANCER patient psychology
CANCER pain
SPIRITUALITY
SPECIALTY hospitals
ATTITUDE (Psychology)
SOCIAL factors
TERTIARY care
REGRESSION analysis
LIFE
PATIENTS' attitudes
HEALTH literacy
TUMOR classification
CANCER treatment
EXPERIENCE
SOCIOECONOMIC factors
QUALITY of life
DESCRIPTIVE statistics
PROBABILITY theory
PSYCHOLOGICAL distress
PALLIATIVE treatment
ATTITUDES toward death
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1472684X
- Volume :
- 21
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- BMC Palliative Care
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 158813867
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-022-01041-z