Needs assessment and affecting factors of cancer outpatients treated with radiotherapy

Objective To assess and investigate the reliability and validity of Needs Evaluation Questionnaire (NEQ) in Chinese version, and to analyze how characteristics of demography affects unmet needs. Methods A single-center study in Peking Union Medical College Hospital was conducted and 142 cancer outpatients were included. The NEQ was divided into 4 different aspects: informative needs, needs related to assistance/care, relational needs and needs for psycho-emotional support by means of exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Univariate analysis was used to explore the impact of characteristics of demography on the unmet needs of each aspect. Results The reliability and validity of NEQ were acceptable. The result of univariate analysis indicated that household income affected informative needs (H=23.768, P＜0.001), relational needs (H=16.877, P＜0.01) and the needs related to assistance/care (H=11.010, P＜0.05). The degree of informative needs,relational needs and needs related to assistance/care kept low when patients had high household income. The age of patients affected informative needs(H=11.022, P＜0.05). The degree of informative needs was high on condition that patients were teenagers or in middle age. The education level affected relational needs (H=9.144, P＜0.05). The degree of rela- tional needs was high on condition that patients had middle level educational background. Conclusions Outpatients with tumor have high-level unmet needs. More attention should be paid to informative needs, relational needs and needs related to assistance/care on condition that patients have low household income. Besides, it is necessary to focus on the informative needs of patients in adolescent age or middle age and relational needs of patients with middle level educational background.