Use of patients’ classification instruments: analysis of the brazilian production of knowledge

Objective To analyze the production of scientific knowledge about the use of patients’ classification instruments in care and management practice in Brazil. Method Integrative literature review with databases search in: Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences (LILACS), Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System on-line (MEDLINE), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and SCOPUS, between January 2002 through December 2013. Results 1,194 studies were found, 31 met the inclusion criteria. We observed a higher number of studies in the category care plans and workload (n=15), followed by the category evaluation of psychometric properties (n=14). Conclusion Brazilian knowledge production has not yet investigated some purposes of using instruments for classifying patients in professional nursing practice. The identification of unexplored areas can guide future research on the topic

Depression, anxiety, fatigue, and quality of life in a large sample of patients suffering from head and neck cancer in comparison with the general population

Background: Treatment of head and neck cancer (HNC) often leads to visible and severe functional impairments. In addition, patients often suffer from a variety of psychosocial problems, significantly associated with a decreased quality of life. We aimed to compare depression, anxiety, fatigue and quality of life (QoL) between HNC patients and a large sample of the general population in Germany and to examine the impact of sociodemographic, behavioral and clinical factors on these symptoms. Methods: We assessed data of HNC patients during the aftercare consultation at the Leipzig University Medical Center with a patient reported outcome (PRO) tool named 'OncoFunction'. Depression, anxiety, fatigue and QoL were assessed using validated outcome measures including the PHQ-9, the GAD-2, and the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire. Results: A total of 817 HNC patients were included in our study and compared to a sample of 5018 individuals of the general German population. HNC patients showed significantly higher levels of impairment in all dimensions assessed. Examination of association between depression, anxiety, fatigue and QoL and clinical as well as sociodemographic variables showed significant relationships between occupational status, ECOG-state, body mass index and time since diagnosis. Conclusions: HNC patients suffer significantly from psychological distress. The used questionnaires are suitable for the use in daily routine practice and can be helpful to increase the detection of depression, anxiety and fatigue and therefore can improve HNC aftercare