Focusing on cancer patients' intentions to use psychooncological support: A longitudinal, mixed-methods study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Distress screening programs aim to ensure appropriate psychooncological support for cancer patients, but many eligible patients do not use these services. To improve distress management, we need to better understand patients' supportive care needs. In this paper, we report the first key finding from a longitudinal study that focused on patients' intentions to use psychooncological support and its association with distress and uptake of the psychooncology service.

Methods

We conducted a prospective, observational study in an Oncology Outpatient Clinic and assessed distress, intention to use psychooncological support, and uptake of the psychooncology service by using the Distress Thermometer, a semistructured interview, and hospital records. We analyzed data with a m

SUBMITTER: Tondorf T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6001470 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature