A comparison of symptom prevalence in far advanced cancer, AIDS, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and renal disease

• Autor(a) principal: Solano, Joao Paulo [UNIFESP]
• Data de Publicação: 2006
• Outros Autores: Gomes, Barbara, Higginson, Irene J.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNIFESP
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2005.06.007; http://repositorio.unifesp.br/handle/11600/28600
• topic: cancer; AIDS; heart disease; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; renal disease; palliative care; terminal care; end of life; symptoms; prevalence

Little attention has been paid to the symptom management needs of Patients with life-threatening diseases other than cancer. in this study, we aimed to determine to what extent patients with progressive chronic diseases have similar symptom profiles. A systematic search of medical databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO) and textbooks identified 64 original studies reporting the prevalence of 11 common symptoms among end-stage patients with cancer, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or renal disease. Analyzing the data in a comparative table (a grid), we found that the prevalence of the 11 symptoms was often widely but homogeneously spread across the five diseases. Three symptoms-pain, breathlessness, and fatigue- were found among more than 50% of patients, for all five diseases. There appears to be a common pathway toward death for malignant and nonmalignant diseases. the designs of symptom prevalence studies need to be improved because of methodological disparities in symptom assessment. and designs.