Symptom Clustering and Its Effect on Functional Status in Lymphoma Patients

AIM: The study aimed to determine the effect of symptom clustering and its effect on functional status in patients with lymphoma. METHOD: This descriptive study was conducted with 109 patients with lymphoma in the Hematology Clinic, Hematology Outpatient Clinic, and Chemotherapy Day Unit of a university hospital. Personal information form, Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale to assess symptoms, and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lymphoma to assess functional status were used in data collection. Frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, significance test of difference between two means, Mann-Whitney U test, one-way analysis of variance, Kruskal Wallis analysis of variance, Pearson’s correlation test, Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency test, and cluster analysis were used to evaluate the data. RESULTS: According to the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale, the most common psychological symptoms in these patients were sleep disturbance, feeling sad and worried; whereas, their physical symptoms were pain, nausea, and dry mouth. Based on the results of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lymphoma Scale, it was found that the functional lives of the patients were negatively affected due to pain, low energy, feeling sad, worrying about the deterioration of the condition, fatigue and pain in certain parts of the body. In the frequency and severity subscales of Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale, gastrointestinal system symptoms were collected more intensively in the first clusters. Physical and psychological symptoms were regularly distributed in the distress subscale. CONCLUSION: As the symptom frequency, severity and distress subscales of Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale increased in lymphoma patients, their functional status deteriorated.