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Nutritional support and risk status among cancer patients in palliative home care services
- Source :
- Supportive Care in Cancer. 17:153-161
- Publication Year :
- 2008
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2008.
-
Abstract
- The aim of this study was to investigate the nutritional risk status and use of nutritional support among cancer patients enrolled in palliative home care services. Differences in the use of nutritional support in relation to nutritional, social and clinical factors, as well as survival were also investigated.Structured telephone interviews were conducted with cancer patients enrolled in all 21 palliative home care services in the Stockholm region. An interview guide was designed to investigate topics related to the patient's nutritional situation.Interviews with 621 patients were analysed. Sixty-eight percent of the patients were scored as at nutritional risk according on a modified version of NRS-2002. Nutritional support was used by 55% of the patients, with oral nutritional supplements most common and 14% using artificial nutrition. Use of nutritional support was related to low BMI and severe weight loss and was more common in patients with shorter survival times.These findings demonstrate that nutritional support is used to treat already malnourished patients with shorter survival time, rather than to prevent malnutrition. A more structured approach to nutritional issues for patients in palliative phases, which considers life expectancy and psycho-social aspects of nutritional issues, could help identify potential candidates for nutritional support.
- Subjects :
- Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Palliative care
MEDLINE
Risk Assessment
Interviews as Topic
Neoplasms
Health care
Home Care Agencies
Humans
Medicine
Medical nutrition therapy
Intensive care medicine
Aged
business.industry
Nursing research
Palliative Care
Cancer
Middle Aged
medicine.disease
Malnutrition
Nutrition Assessment
Oncology
Family medicine
Female
Nutrition Therapy
Risk assessment
business
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14337339 and 09414355
- Volume :
- 17
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Supportive Care in Cancer
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....981e0c978cbfc0111ccf704f15810266