Symptom burden in the last week of life

In order to investigate symptom burden in the last week of life, we conducted after-death interviews with close relatives of deceased older persons from a population-based sample of older people in The Netherlands ( n = 270). Results show that fatigue, pain, and shortness of breath were common (83%,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of pain and symptom management 2004, Vol.27 (1), p.5-13
Main Authors: Klinkenberg, Marianne, Willems, Dick L, Wal, Gerrit van der, Deeg, Dorly J.H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
awareness
Biological and medical sciences
cognition
Cost of Illness
Critical Illness - psychology
dying
end-of-life care
Family - psychology
Female
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Pain
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
symptoms
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In order to investigate symptom burden in the last week of life, we conducted after-death interviews with close relatives of deceased older persons from a population-based sample of older people in The Netherlands ( n = 270). Results show that fatigue, pain, and shortness of breath were common (83%, 48% and 50%, respectively). Other symptoms were confusion (36%), anxiety (31%), depression (28%), and nausea and/or vomiting (25%). Cancer patients and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were clearly at a disadvantage with respect to pain and shortness of breath, respectively. Furthermore, cognitive decline turned out to be predictive of specific symptom burden. Persons with cognitive decline in the last three months had a higher symptom burden and different symptoms compared to patients with no cognitive decline. It is suggested that older persons with cognitive decline require specific attention.
ISSN:0885-3924
1873-6513
DOI:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2003.05.008