Review Article
A Review of the Prevalence and Impact of Multiple Symptoms in Oncology Patients

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2008.04.018Get rights and content
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Abstract

Findings from several studies suggest that oncology patients undergoing active treatment experience multiple symptoms, and that these symptoms can have a negative effect on patient outcomes. However, no systematic review has summarized the findings from studies that assessed multiple symptoms in these patients. Therefore, the purposes of this review were to: 1) compare and contrast the characteristics of the three most commonly used instruments to measure multiple symptoms; 2) summarize the prevalence rates for multiple symptoms in studies of oncology patients receiving active treatment; 3) describe the relationships among selected demographic, disease, and treatment characteristics and multiple symptoms; and 4) describe the relationships between the occurrence of multiple symptoms and patient outcomes (i.e., functional status, quality of life). Only 18 studies were found that met the inclusion criteria for this review. The majority of the studies were cross-sectional with sample sizes that ranged from 26 to 527. Approximately 40% of patients experienced more than one symptom. However, little is known about the relationships between demographic and clinical characteristics and the occurrence of multiple symptoms. Findings from this review suggest that the occurrence of multiple symptoms is associated with decreased functional status and quality of life. However, given the large number of oncology patients who undergo active treatment each year, additional research is warranted on the prevalence and impact of multiple symptoms. Only when this descriptive research is completed with homogenous samples of patients in terms of cancer diagnoses and treatments can intervention studies for multiple symptoms be developed and tested.

Key Words

Multiple symptoms
symptom clusters
patient outcomes
symptom assessment
symptom prevalence
outpatient oncology

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Drs. Miaskowski and Dodd's research programs are supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR). Dr. Aouizerat is funded through the National Institutes of Health Roadmap for Medical Research Grant (8K12 RR023262). Ms. Kim was funded during her doctoral program through a T32 Grant (NR07088) from the NINR.