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Symptom assessment in palliative medicine: complexities and challenges
Jordanka Kirkova1, Declan Walsh, Mitchell Russel
1Harry R. Horvitz Center for Palliative Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
The American Journal of Hospice & Palliative Care
|August 4, 2009
Summary
Thorough symptom assessment in palliative care is challenging. This review discusses current methods and symptom questionnaires for better clinical utility and patient outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Palliative Medicine
- Patient-Reported Outcomes
Background:
- Symptoms are crucial patient-reported outcomes (PRO) for evaluating disease impact, treatment efficacy, and care quality.
- Assessing symptoms in palliative care is difficult due to patients often experiencing multiple symptoms and fatigue.
- There is a lack of consensus on standardizing symptom assessment in palliative medicine.
Purpose of the Study:
- To discuss current methodological concepts for symptom assessment in clinical practice.
- To review symptom questionnaires suitable for palliative medicine.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on symptom assessment methodologies.
- Focus on instruments and approaches applicable to palliative care settings.
- Discussion of psychometric properties of structured multisymptom assessments.
Main Results:
- Existing research offers some methodological guidance but lacks consensus on standardization.
- Psychometric properties of structured multisymptom assessments are understudied.
- New approaches are needed to enhance clinical assessment efficacy and utility.
Conclusions:
- Standardized, validated symptom assessment tools are needed in palliative medicine.
- Improved assessment methods can enhance clinical decision-making and patient care.
- Further research into the psychometric properties of assessment instruments is warranted.
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