Identifying palliative home care needs of patients with advanced cancer: a cross-sectional study

Xiaocheng Liu; Hui Liu; Wenjuan Ying; Yuying Zhang; Xiaoling Gong; Junfang Huang

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1448973

Identifying palliative home care needs of patients with advanced cancer: a cross-sectional study

Front Psychiatry. 2025 Feb 25:16:1448973. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1448973. eCollection 2025.

Authors

Xiaocheng Liu¹, Hui Liu², Wenjuan Ying³, Yuying Zhang¹, Xiaoling Gong¹, Junfang Huang¹

Affiliations

¹ Pediatric Neurorehabilitation Department, Shenzhen Longhua Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital, Shenzhen, China.
² Oncology Department, Cancer Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, China.
³ Nursing Department, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, China.

Abstract

Background: Home-based palliative care is an ideal model for providing continuous, effective, and timely care at the patient's home. However, the timely recognition of palliative home care needs remains a clinical challenge, and few studies have described the characteristics of palliative care needs and quality of life at home.

Objectives: To identify the palliative home care needs of patients with advanced cancer and explore the influencing factors in addressing these needs.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, convenience samples were collected from four cities in mainland China between May 2020 and November 2021. The revised Problems and Needs in Palliative Care-short version was used to evaluate palliative home care needs. The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-C30 was used to evaluate the participants' quality of life. We used SPSS version 23.0 for all statistical analyses. Descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon rank sum test, Spearman rho correlation independent t-test, and multiple linear regression were performed to analyze the data.

Results: Completed the survey. The patients' palliative home care needs were primarily related to physical symptoms, home health care services, and psychological issues. For items, the top three palliative home care needs were related to financial needs, "extra expenditures because of the disease" (75.9%), psychological issues, "fear of getting worse" (72.8%), and "fear of physical suffering" (67.9%). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that 53.5% of palliative home care needs could be explained by the Karnofsky Performance Status and quality of life: physical, role, emotional, and financial difficulties dimensions.

Conclusion: The palliative home care needs were associated with patients' quality of life and financial difficulties. These findings may contribute to provide a framework for palliative home care service, and help to identify specific interventions.

Keywords: cancer; home care; need; palliative home care; quality of life.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by the Shenzhen Longhua Medical Research Program (Grant Number: 2023025) Shenzhen Fundamental Research Program (No. JCYJ20210324122609025) and the Shenzhen Longhua Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital Start-up Fund (Grant Number: LHFY202208).