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

Abstract

163 Background: Few studies have investigated nutrition impact symptoms and eating-related distress among advanced cancer patients and their family members. This is an anonymous questionnaire survey to explore the severity of nutrition impact symptoms and the prevalence of eating-related distress among advanced cancer patients and their family members in palliative and supportive care settings. Methods: The questionnaires for patients and their family members have been preliminarily developed by the authors. We have chosen 16 common symptoms of advanced cancer, i.e., 9 symptoms of the ESAS-r and 7 symptoms of the PG-SGA. Each questionnaire concerning eating-related distress consists 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 between the two groups were observed in 5 symptoms: pain (p = 0.005), nausea (p = 0.005), diarrhea (p = 0.001), abnormal taste (p = 0.017), and difficulty swallowing (p = 0.002), respectively. Concerning eating-related distress, significant differences between the two patient groups were observed in all items except for 2, and those between the two family member groups were observed in all items. The mean numbers of items in which patients/family members answered positively were significantly higher in Cachexia/Refractory cachexia group (p < 0.001, respectively). Conclusions: Advanced cancer patients with cachexia have greater nutrition impact symptoms than those without cachexia, and patients with cachexia and their family members have higher eating-related distress than those without cachexia.