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Analyzing Goals of Care in Advanced Cancer Patients and Their Family Caregivers: Evidence-based Research

OBJECTIVE: The study objective was to determine concordance between patients and family caregivers’ preferences for quality or length of life over time. BACKGROUND: Patients with advanced cancer are confronted with difficult decisions throughout their course of treatment and at end of life (EOL). Th...

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Autores principales: Douglas, Sara L., Lipson, Amy R., Daly, Barbara J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6245603/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30467555
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author Douglas, Sara L.
Lipson, Amy R.
Daly, Barbara J.
author_facet Douglas, Sara L.
Lipson, Amy R.
Daly, Barbara J.
author_sort Douglas, Sara L.
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description OBJECTIVE: The study objective was to determine concordance between patients and family caregivers’ preferences for quality or length of life over time. BACKGROUND: Patients with advanced cancer are confronted with difficult decisions throughout their course of treatment and at end of life (EOL). These decisions can be influenced by their family caregivers’ preferences for the patient’s cancer treatment. METHODS: Using a longitudinal, descriptive study design from an on-going study, data were collected on an adult sample of patients with advanced stage GI or lung cancers and their family caregivers (n=237). Using a one item visual analog scale (0–100 with higher number indicating a preference for length of life over quality of life), patients and family caregivers were asked “regarding your/your loved one’s care, what is most important to you right now?” Data were collected every 3 months until 15 months or patient’s death. RESULTS: At enrollment, the preference scores between patients (48.5) and family caregivers (42.6) were closely aligned. At the last assessment prior to death, these scores diverged with the caregivers favoring goals associated with quality of life over length of life (p=.02). DISCUSSION: Patients and family caregivers have differing preferences and these goals of care can change over time. Attention to these differences could be used to guide conversations between patients and family caregivers regarding preferences at EOL.
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spelling pubmed-62456032018-11-20 Analyzing Goals of Care in Advanced Cancer Patients and Their Family Caregivers: Evidence-based Research Douglas, Sara L. Lipson, Amy R. Daly, Barbara J. POJ Nurs Pract Res Article OBJECTIVE: The study objective was to determine concordance between patients and family caregivers’ preferences for quality or length of life over time. BACKGROUND: Patients with advanced cancer are confronted with difficult decisions throughout their course of treatment and at end of life (EOL). These decisions can be influenced by their family caregivers’ preferences for the patient’s cancer treatment. METHODS: Using a longitudinal, descriptive study design from an on-going study, data were collected on an adult sample of patients with advanced stage GI or lung cancers and their family caregivers (n=237). Using a one item visual analog scale (0–100 with higher number indicating a preference for length of life over quality of life), patients and family caregivers were asked “regarding your/your loved one’s care, what is most important to you right now?” Data were collected every 3 months until 15 months or patient’s death. RESULTS: At enrollment, the preference scores between patients (48.5) and family caregivers (42.6) were closely aligned. At the last assessment prior to death, these scores diverged with the caregivers favoring goals associated with quality of life over length of life (p=.02). DISCUSSION: Patients and family caregivers have differing preferences and these goals of care can change over time. Attention to these differences could be used to guide conversations between patients and family caregivers regarding preferences at EOL. 2018-04-18 2018 /pmc/articles/PMC6245603/ /pubmed/30467555 Text en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Article
Douglas, Sara L.
Lipson, Amy R.
Daly, Barbara J.
Analyzing Goals of Care in Advanced Cancer Patients and Their Family Caregivers: Evidence-based Research
title Analyzing Goals of Care in Advanced Cancer Patients and Their Family Caregivers: Evidence-based Research
title_full Analyzing Goals of Care in Advanced Cancer Patients and Their Family Caregivers: Evidence-based Research
title_fullStr Analyzing Goals of Care in Advanced Cancer Patients and Their Family Caregivers: Evidence-based Research
title_full_unstemmed Analyzing Goals of Care in Advanced Cancer Patients and Their Family Caregivers: Evidence-based Research
title_short Analyzing Goals of Care in Advanced Cancer Patients and Their Family Caregivers: Evidence-based Research
title_sort analyzing goals of care in advanced cancer patients and their family caregivers: evidence-based research
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6245603/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30467555
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