Screening for Distress in the Radiation Therapy Department: Distress Incidence by Sex, Treatment Intent, and...

Health care is moving toward personalized (person-centered) holistic care. Screening for distress is a national initiative that promotes this and will allow for better interdisciplinary collaboration between health care providers. The use of distress screening allows our cancer centers to determine trends and correlations between patient demographics and patient distress. Distress leads to increased physical complications, increased patient anxiety, decreased compliancy with treatment, and an overall negative experience in the health care system. This tool helps health care providers to identify and manage patient distress in a timely manner.

A screening for distress questionnaire was completed by 119 new patients entering the department of radiation therapy at the Saskatoon Cancer Center, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Results were segregated by sex, treatment intent, and ethnicity and then were subjected to a Wilcoxon rank sum test to determine statistical significance between test groups.

Results indicated higher distress levels in female versus male patients, palliative care versus curative intent, and Aboriginal/Métis versus non-Aboriginal/non-Métis populations. The most commonly reported symptoms of distress included recurring fatigue, poor overall well-being, and high levels of anxiety. The fears/worries portion of the distress checklist was most commonly reported.

The screening for distress questionnaire has been proven to be a valuable tool in the facilitation of collaborative health care and holistic patient care. Because of higher than average distress scores, further investigation should be done with Aboriginal/Métis peoples in the health care system.