Effective symptom communication may decrease distress in patients and their spouses/partners. However, couples tend to experience barriers to open communication particularly when the patient faces a poor prognosis. Besides the high symptom burden in glioma patients, partners are also at risk of experiencing physical and psychological symptoms, which may impact their relationship. Thus, this cross-sectional survey study aims to examine symptom burden in both patient and partners, their perceptions of each other’s symptoms and if concordance in symptom ratings is a function of illness communication and spousal support. The larger goal is to identify targets for dyadic symptom management interventions. Adult patients with a low or high grade glioma diagnosis currently received any type of cancer treatment with a consenting partner were eligible and approached during routine clinic visits. Fifty patients (43% female, mean age=57 years; 63% high grade) and partners (57% female; mean age=56 years) completed measures of cancer symptoms (ESAS), psychological distress (BSI), spousal support (SRI), and illness communication (CCAT_PF). Dyadic analyses using multi-level modeling and appropriate covariates revealed that partner perception of patient symptoms were significantly correlated with patients’ own ratings (P<.0001). In contrast, patients tended to underestimate partners’ symptom burden revealing low concordance ratings. The concordance findings were moderated by illness communication (P<.05) and spousal support (P<.0001) so that couples who reported open illness communication revealed greater concordance and partners who were identified as supportive by the patient revealed greater concordance with patient symptom ratings. Importantly, the higher couples’ concordance, the lower their psychological distress (P<.05). In conclusion, these findings suggest that effective illness communication and spousal support may play a role in the symptom management of couples coping with glioma. Dyadic behavioral interventions targeting communication and support skills training may improve symptom management in patients and reduce psychological distress in both members of the dyad.
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