Kontakt 2018, 20(3):e273-e277 | DOI: 10.1016/j.kontakt.2018.08.002

Annoying symptoms and social support in patients with cancerNursing - Original article

Radka Kurucová^a,*, Katarína Žiaková^a, Elena Gurková^b, Gabriela Šrámeková^c

^a Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, Jesseniova lekárska fakulta v Martině, Ústav ošetrovateľstva, Martin, Slovenská republika

^b Akademia Techniczno-Humanistyczna, Wydział Nauk o Zdrowiu, Katedra Pielęgniarstwa i Ratownictwa Medycznego, Bielsko-Biała, Poľská republika

^c Hornooravská nemocnica s poliklinikou, Oddelenie paliatívnej starostlivosti, Trstená, Slovenská republika

Aim: To find out how the burden associated with experiencing symptoms affects the degree of social support and the incidence of depression in patients with cancer.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Methods: 100 patients (47 women and 53 men) diagnosed with cancer, at different stages of disease severity, were involved in the study.
We used the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (MSAS) to assess symptom survival. The scale assesses 32 symptoms in three sub-scales (physical, psychological, symptoms, total distress). To assess social assistance we used the SELSA range, containing 20 items, divided into 3 sub-categories - social relationships, family relationships, partnerships. To assess the survival of sadness and more serious symptoms of depression, we used a range of depression - CES-D (Center for Epidemiological Studies - Depression Scale).

Results: The results show that with a higher incidence of troublesome symptoms patients are more likely to suffer on the one hand from depression and, on the other hand, from lower levels of social support in individual domains. The greatest degree of linear dependence is observed between the occurrence of psychological symptoms and the family domain in the SELSA scale (0.470), the occurrence of psychological symptoms and the overall rate of social support (0.456).

Conclusion: The results of the study correspond with the conclusions of several studies showing that the occurrence of symptom-aggravating symptoms of patients with oncological disease significantly affects the degree of social support from individual members of the family. For nurses in clinical practice, the assessment of harrowing symptoms using scales can serve to plan and implement effective interventions to promote the quality of life of patients with oncological and other infectious diseases.

Keywords: Symptom distress; Social support; Oncological disease; Patient

Received: May 9, 2018; Revised: July 4, 2018; Accepted: August 15, 2018; Published: October 12, 2018  Show citation