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Unmet psychosocial needs among cancer patients undergoing ambulatory care in Singapore

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Abstract

Purpose

Previous studies have demonstrated high prevalence of unmet psychosocial needs among cancer patients, but few were conducted among Asians. In this cross-sectional study, we investigated the prevalence of and factors associated with unmet psychosocial needs among cancer patients undergoing ambulatory care at a cancer centre in Singapore.

Method

We conducted a cross-sectional study among 535 breast, gynaecological and colorectal cancer patients (response rate, 76%) using a modified version of the Cancer Survivors' Unmet Needs measure questionnaire, to assess the prevalence of patients' needs for disease information and social support, physical needs, financial needs and psychological needs, and the extent to which needs were met. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify demographic or disease characteristics associated with unmet needs.

Results

Seventy-five per cent of patients reported having any unmet needs, with disease information needs being most prevalent (61.5%) followed by financial (40.2%), social support (39.7%), psychological (27.3%) and physical (26.1%) needs. Factors independently associated with having high level of unmet needs were age below 60 years, ethnic minority, advanced disease and recent diagnosis.

Conclusion

The prevalence of unmet psychosocial needs among cancer patients in ambulatory care is generally high. Young patients with disease recently diagnosed at advanced stage will benefit from additional support.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. K. Hodgkinson for the use of the CaSUN unmet needs measure tool, Mr. Gilbert Fan of the National Cancer Centre Singapore for his advice and the medical students of the National University of Singapore Community Health Project 7 (2009) for the conduct of the survey.

Potential conflicts of interests

None of the authors has any potential financial or conflict of interest in this work. As authors, we have full control of all primary data and agree to allow the journal to review our data if requested.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Oncology, National Cancer Centre Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Raymond Ng

  2. Center of Image Guided Oncologic Interventions, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Helena Marieke Verkooijen

  3. Department of Surgical Oncology, National Cancer Centre Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    London Lucien Ooi

  4. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, MD3, 16 Medical Drive, Singapore, 117597, Singapore

    Helena Marieke Verkooijen & Woon-Puay Koh

Authors
  1. Raymond Ng
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  2. Helena Marieke Verkooijen
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  3. London Lucien Ooi
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  4. Woon-Puay Koh
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Woon-Puay Koh.

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Ng, R., Verkooijen, H.M., Ooi, L.L. et al. Unmet psychosocial needs among cancer patients undergoing ambulatory care in Singapore. Support Care Cancer 20, 1049–1056 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-011-1181-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-011-1181-1

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