Author of

• 17890

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  P2.07 - Poster Session with Presenters Present (ID 468)

  • Event: WCLC 2016
  • Type: Poster Presenters Present
  • Track: Nurses
  • Presentations: 1
  • Moderators:
  • Coordinates: 12/06/2016, 14:30 - 15:45, Hall B (Poster Area)

  • 17894

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    P2.07-004 - Social Support and Number of Symptoms One Month after Lung Cancer Surgery (ID 4276)

    14:30 - 14:30  |  Author(s): T. Rustoen
    • Abstract

    Background:
    Background: Surgical resection is considered the treatment of choice for patients with early stage, non-small cell lung cancer. It is shown that these patients experience many concurrent symptoms after surgery. Patients with good social support experiences less emotional distress and have an increased survival compared to those with poor social relationships. It is shown that lung cancer patients receives less social support than other cancer patients. However, the knowledge about surgically treated lung cancer patients’ social support is limited. There is also limited knowledge about social supports influence on patients’ symptom burden. The purpose of this study was to describe patients’ experience of social support 1 month after lung cancer surgery, and to evaluate the relationship between the level of social support and number of symptoms in these patients.
    
    Methods:
    Patients were recruited from three university hospitals in Norway. They completed different questionnaires 1 month following surgery including; demographic and clinical characteristics, symptoms and social support. Patients’ medical records were reviewed for disease and treatment information. The Social Provisions Scale (SPS) measured social support and symptoms was measured by a multidimensional symptom assessment scale (i.e., Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (MSAS)). Descriptive statistics were used to present demographic and clinical characteristics. The relationship between social support and number of symptoms was analyzed by Pearson’s correlation coefficient.
    
    Results:
    The sample consisted of 129 (57%) men and 99 (43%) women with a mean age of 65.8 years (SD 8.5, range 30 to 87). The patients experienced a relatively high level of social support ( =84.93, SD=9.4); however it was lower than the social support experienced by Norwegian breast cancer patients ( =87.96, SD=7.55). The total number of symptoms 1 month after surgery was 13 (SD 6.8). When looking into the subscales and SPS patients had the lowest score on the subscale “Opportunity for nurturance” (the sense that others rely upon one for their well-being) ( =11,3, SD=2,8). Patients that experienced lower social support had a significant higher number of symptoms (r=0.168, p=0.017). There was a significant correlation between a higher number of symptoms and social support on five of six subscales of social support.
    
    Conclusion:
    Findings from this study show that patients have a high number of symptoms after surgery and that patient with poor social support experiences a higher symptom burden. Clinicians need to assess patients’ social support and plan the care and follow up for the patients with low social support.