TY  - JOUR
A1  - Senf, Bianca
A1  - Grabowski, Kirsten
A1  - Spielmann, Natascha
A1  - Fettel, Jens
T1  - Quality of life and distress assessed with self and external assessment screening tools in patients with hematologic malignancies attending treatment in an acute hospital
T2  - Quality of life research
N2  - Purpose: In this study, we examined distress levels and quality of life (QoL) of patients with hematologic malignancies under treatment in an acute setting. We used external- and self-assessment instruments for distress. Additionally, we investigated the relation between distress and QoL as well as whether highly distressed patients differed from less distressed patients concerning their QoL.
Methods: A cross-sectional study with patients of the Medical Clinic II of the University Hospital Frankfurt was conducted. One hundred and nine patients were assessed with an expert rating scale and completed self-report questionnaires. Data were exploratively analyzed and group comparisons between patients who scored above the cut-off of the respective screening instruments and those who did not were conducted.
Results: Patients with hematologic malignancies experience high levels of distress and low QoL. Especially, role and social functioning are affected. Patients suffer most from fatigue, appetite loss, and insomnia. Using established cut-offs, all screening instruments were able to differentiate between patients regarding distress and QoL. Patients scoring above the cut-off were significantly more distressed and had a lower QoL. There was a medium-to-strong correlation between distress and QoL indicators.
Conclusion: Cancer-specific screening instruments seem to be able to identify treatment needs more specifically. They also allowed a better differentiation concerning QoL. The close link between distress and QoL needs to be recognized to enable a holistic approach to treatment and thereby optimize the quality of treatment.
KW  - Acute hospital
KW  - Distress screening
KW  - External-/self-assessment
KW  - Hematologic malignancies
KW  - Psycho-oncology
KW  - Quality of life
Y1  - 2020
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/63733
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-637337
SN  - 1573-2649
N1  - Open Access funding provided by Projekt DEAL. H.W. & J. Hector Stiftung, Grant/Award Number: Medizinprojekt M64.
VL  - 29
IS  - 12
SP  - 3375
EP  - 3385
PB  - Springer Science + Business Media B.V
CY  - Dordrecht [u.a.]
ER  -