Authors: David B Bekelman John S Rumsfeld Edward P Havranek Traci E Yamashita Evelyn Hutt Sheldon H Gottlieb Sydney M Dy Jean S Kutner
Publish Date: 2009/03/14
Volume: 24, Issue: 5, Pages: 592-598
Abstract
Overall the heart failure patients and the cancer patients had similar numbers of physical symptoms 91 vs 86 p = 079 depression scores 39 vs 32 p = 053 and spiritual wellbeing 359 vs 390 p = 031 after adjustment for age gender marital status education and income Symptom burden depression symptoms and spiritual wellbeing were also similar among heart failure patients with ejection fraction ≤30 ejection fraction 30 and cancer patients Heart failure patients with worse heart failurerelated health status had a greater number of physical symptoms 132 vs 86 p = 003 higher depression scores 67 vs 32 p = 0001 and lower spiritual wellbeing 290 vs 389 p 001 than patients with advanced cancerPatients with symptomatic heart failure and advanced cancer have similar needs for palliative care as assessed by symptom burden depression and spiritual wellbeing This implies that heart failure patients particularly those with more severe heart failure need the option of palliative care just as cancer patients doThis study was funded by the Johns Hopkins Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine the Johns Hopkins General Clinical Research Center and the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine NIH Dr Bekelman is supported by the University of ColoradoDenver Mordecai Palliative Care Pilot Grants Fund and the University of ColoradoDenver Hartford/Jahnigen Division of Geriatrics Center of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine Part of this manuscript was presented at the American Heart Association Quality of Care and Outcomes Research in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke Conference in Baltimore Maryland May 2008 and the Society for General Internal Medicine 31st Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania April 2008None of the authors have any potential conflicts of interest The funders did not have a role in the design and conduct of the study collection management analysis or interpretation of the data nor in preparation review or approval of the manuscript
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