The Relationships Among Pain Non-pain Symptoms and Quality of Life Measures in Older Adults with Cancer Receiving Hospice Care

摘要

Gathering first hand or reported information about patients in the final stages of terminal cancer is difficult due to patient frailty, cognitive impairment, excessive fatigue and severity of illness, as well as gatekeeping by hospice providers and caregivers, and highly variable documentation practices.ObjectiveWe sought to further understand and elucidate end-of-life experiences in older cancer patients through the application of validated tools employed in the hospice setting. This paper summarizes data collected about pain, non-pain symptoms, and other aspects of quality of life (QOL) as reported by older hospice patients or their caregivers during the first two weeks of hospice care.