Palliative Oncological Patients with Insomnia: Concerns of the Patients and Their Relatives’ Perception

Antoni Font Guiteras, Helena Villar Abelló, José Planas Domingo, Cristina Farriols Danés, Ada Ruiz Ripoll and Rita Berger
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Antoni Font Guiteras: Department de Psicologia Bàsica, Evolutiva i de la Educació, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Barcelona, Spain
Helena Villar Abelló: Department de Psicologia Bàsica, Evolutiva i de la Educació, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Barcelona, Spain
José Planas Domingo: Palliative Care Unit, Geriatric Department, Centre Fòrum, Hospital del Mar, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
Cristina Farriols Danés: Palliative Care Unit, Geriatric Department, Centre Fòrum, Hospital del Mar, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
Ada Ruiz Ripoll: Palliative Care Unit, Geriatric Department, Centre Fòrum, Hospital del Mar, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
Rita Berger: Departamento de Psicología Social y Cuantitativa, Universitat de Barcelona, 08035 Barcelona, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 16, 1-10

Abstract: Insomnia is one of the most frequent symptoms and usually generates significant stress in 60% of patients with advanced cancer. Worries from the patients’ and relatives’ perspective are crucial to improve the patients’ quality of life but have received limited attention. The aims were to identify the concerns of patients with insomnia in the terminal illness stage in a palliative care unit and the relatives’ perception, and to compare both. Here, 63 patients and 53 relatives answered a questionnaire about worries in the personal, spiritual, family-related and economic area, as well as a quality-of-life uniscale. The results showed that the relatives’ most frequent concern was “Having lived life to the fullest” (100%), and the most intense was “The possible suffering during the process” (9.2/10). The patients’ most expressed concern was: “Having unfinished business” (100%), and the most intense was “Suffering during the process” (9.3/10). Quality of life showed an average value of 6.95 out of 10. Relatives only coincided significantly in: “Not knowing what happens after death” (r = 0.600; p = 0.000). These results bring visibility to concerns during the final stage of oncological palliative patients with insomnia from the patients’ and relatives’ perspective. Knowing both is useful for professionals to foster the well-being for a short, yet very important, period for patients, relatives and the caregiving team.

Keywords: palliative care; insomnia; concerns; terminal cancer; primary caregiver (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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