Eating-related distress in advanced cancer patients with cachexia and family members: a survey in palliative and supportive care settings.

PURPOSE: Few studies have investigated nutrition impact symptoms and eating-related distress among advanced cancer patients and their families. This is a questionnaire survey to examine the severity of nutrition impact symptoms and the prevalence of eating-related distress among them in palliative and supportive care settings.

METHODS

Questionnaires for patients and their families were preliminarily developed. We selected 16 common symptoms of advanced cancer, i.e., 9 symptoms of the ESAS-r and 7 of the PG-SGA. Each questionnaire concerning eating-related distress consisted of 12 items.

RESULTS

A total of 140 out of 147 patients responded (95.2%). They were classified into two groups: (1) non-cachexia/pre-cachexia (n = 57) and (2) cachexia/refractory cachexia (n = 83). The top 3 out of 16 symptoms in all patients were feeling of well-being, lack of appetite, and tiredness. Significant differences were observed in 8 symptoms between the two groups: tiredness (p = 0.007), drowsiness (p = 0.007), lack of appetite (p < 0.001), early satiety (p = 0.001), diarrhea (p = 0.025), abnormal taste (p = 0.02), difficulty swallowing (p = 0.002), and feeling of well-being (p = 0.003). Regarding eating-related distress in patients, significant differences were observed in all items, except for 2, between the two groups. Concerning eating-related distress in families, significant differences were observed in all items between the two groups.

CONCLUSION

Advanced cancer patients with cachexia have more severe nutrition impact symptoms than those without cachexia, and patients with cachexia and their families have greater eating-related distress than those without cachexia.