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Abstract
Background: End - of - life care planning needs to respect the preferences and values of patients and their families. Therefore, enhancing the understanding of the patients concerns in end - of - life care and the knowledge about the patients’ disease, trajectory of the disease, and prognosis are critical in discussing end - of - life care plan. However, the knowledge of older cancer patients about the trajectory of the disease and their preferences have not been well explored in our country.
Objectives: This study aims to assess the knowledge of diseases and explore the factors relating to the preferences of the older adults with diagnosis of stage IV cancer at Geriatrics and Palliative care department in University Medical Center at Ho Chi Minh city (UMC).
Methods: A descriptive cross - sectional study was conducted in 109 older inpatients (≥ 60 years old) with diagnosis of stage IV cancer, at Geriatrics and Palliative care department in UMC, from 01/12/2020 to 01/05/2021. Data on demographic, social and clinical aspects were collected. The patients were asked about their knowledge of the diseases, the trajectory of the disease, the prognosis and their preferences at the end - of - life.
Results: With the preferences for end - of - life care, more than 50% of the group with more well - off economic status wanted to have parenteral nutrition support (p = 0.014). The group with knowledge of the disease, with severe prognosis, 56.7% refused this preference (p = 0.034). With the preference for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the well - off group, 68.8% tended to refuse this preference (p = 0.004). Regarding the desired place of death, BMI, ADL were statistically significant; the underweight group, low baseline functional status were more desirable to die at home (p = 0.025, p = 0.018).
Conclusions: Financial status, knowledge of disease severity, being underweight, and having low baseline functional status were significantly associated with desire for end of life care. Health care workers need to understand economic status, improve understanding of the patient’s serious illness in discussion and planning of good end - of - life care.
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| Published | 05-01-2025 | |
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| Issue | No. 79 (2022) | |
| Section | Original article | |
| DOI | 10.38103/jcmhch.79.13 | |
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