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Abstract

Background: Understanding anxiety and depression is important to managing cancer patients’ distress in palliative care and improving their quality of life. We aim to describe depression and anxiety rates among cancer patients referred to palliative care and identity factors associated with these symptoms.

Method: We analyzed the baseline data from an experimental study of comprehensive palliative care in Vietnam. This study included patients with stage 3 or 4 cancer diseases, during their first hospitalization for an inpatient palliative care service. A cut-off of above 8 points for each subscale on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was used to assess anxiety and depression. Logistic regression and ordinal regression were used to identify factors associated with depression and anxiety.

Results: Among 91 patients, anxiety prevalence was 22% and depression prevalence was 44%. 11% of patients experienced anxiety and/or depression at a severe level or higher in the past three days. There were more men presenting anxiety (33.3%) than women (12.2%; p = 0.015). Patients who had no discussion about their end-of-life placements (62.5%) experienced depression more than those who had (53%, p = 0.027). Female gender was associated with a lower level of anxiety (OR = 0.2; CI = 0.068–0.711) and depression (OR = 0.8; CI = 0.336–1.796).

Conclusion: Females were significantly less susceptible to anxiety and depression. Patients who had goal-of-care discussions reported lower levels of psychological distress. These findings are hypothesis-generating; they suggest that goal-of-care discussions could potentially decrease the risk of psychological distress in cancer patients.

Keywords: Palliative care, Depression, Anxiety, Advanced cancer, Vietnam

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