Impact of early palliative care according to baseline symptom severity: Secondary analysis of a cluster-randomized controlled trial in patients with advanced cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Early palliative care (EPC) improves the quality of life but may not be feasible for all patients with advanced cancer. Symptom screening has been suggested to triage patients for EPC, but scant evidence exists for this practice.

Methods

We conducted a subgroup analysis of a cluster-randomized controlled trial of EPC vs. standard oncology care according to patients' baseline symptom scores (high [>23] vs. low [≤23] Edmonton Symptom Assessment System Distress Score [ESAS SDS]). A linear mixed-effects model was used to account for correlation within clusters, adjusting for the baseline outcome score and all covariates in the original trial.

Results

Among the 461 participants, baseline symptom scores were high in 229 patients (127 intervention, 102 control) an

SUBMITTER: Rodin R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9041071 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature