Patients Quality of Life in a Palliative Care Unit: a Transversal Study

Abstract

Introduction: In palliative care, the major objective of treatment is to improve patients' quality of life. This construct encompasses aspects related to symptoms, functioning, social and physical wellbeing. Objective: Assess health-related quality of life of inpatients of a Palliative Care Unit, and establish relationships with symptom burden. Method: This is a cross-sectional study in which patients filled out the QLQ-C15-PAL questionnaire during December of 2013; medications in use, other treatments and social variables were also registered. Results: 29 patients participated in the study. Analysis using the Mann-Whitney U test revealed worse dyspnea scores associated with lower emotional functioning (p=0.028); lower physical functioning scores, along with higher levels of nausea and vomiting and levels of hyporexia related to worse performance-status values (p=0.047, p=0.038 and p=0.018, respectively). Also, patients who had an escort showed a tendency to have lower scores for quality of life (p=0.035). Conclusion: Assessing quality of life is an important aspect of daily practices in palliative care, and it is important to evaluate the patients' own assessment of their quality of life along with their symptom burden.