Background Identification of patients who might benefit from palliative care among countries with different socioeconomic and medical contexts is challenging. The Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool for a Low-income Setting (SPICT-LIS) was designed to help physicians identify patients in low-income setting who might benefit from palliative care. We aimed to systematically adapt and refine the SPICT-LIS for Thai general palliative care providers. Methods We followed the WHO guidelines for translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation of an instrument for the SPICT-LIS. Three expert panel members did the initial adaptation using forward and backward translations with pretested data. Two iterations of pretesting were conducted to test for applicability and reliability. The case vignettes which were used in the pretesting were modified hospital medical records. The pretesting was done with 30 respondents from various specialties in a community health center and 34 general palliative care providers from a regional referral hospital in the first and second iterations, respectively. To examine instrument reliability, interrater reliability and internal consistency were evaluated. Cognitive interviewing was conducted using semi-structured interviews with general practitioners (GPs) using the “think aloud strategy” and “probing questions”. Results The adapted Thai SPICT-LIS had a total of 34 indicators which included 6 general and 28 clinical indicators. The assessment of the adapted Thai SPICT-LIS found that it provided consistent responses with good agreement among the GPs, with a Fleiss kappa coefficient of 0.93 (0.76–1.00). The administration time was 2.3–4.3 min per case. Most respondents were female. The 8 interviewed GPs said they felt that the SPICT-LIS was appropriate for use in a general setting in Thailand. Conclusion The study found that the Thai SPICT-LIS could be an applicable, acceptable, and reliable tool for general palliative care providers in Thailand to identify patients who might benefit from palliative care.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of patients requiring palliative care in outpatient clinics and associated factors.Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted by retrospectively reviewing the electronic medical records of cancer patients visiting the outpatient clinics in the major tertiary care institution in southern Thailand during 1 January– 31 December 2018 from the Hospital Information System. The Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool in Low Income Settings (SPICT-LISTM) was used to determine if the patients would benefit from palliative care. Forward stepwise multiple logistic regression was used to assess associations between potential factors and the need for palliative care.Results: Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety medical records were reviewed. 3,628 (36.3%) patients were male and 6,324 (63.3%) were female with a median age of 58.7 years. The prevalence of cancer patients requiring palliative care according to the SPICT-LISTM criteria was 7.8%. Age was the main factor associated with palliative care need [odds ratio (OR)=1.03, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.02-1.04]. Muslim patients had a significantly higher requirement for palliative care compared with Buddhist patients (OR=1.62, 95% CI=1.09-2.37). Although not statistically significant, malignant neoplasms of bone and articular cartilage were associated with higher palliative care need than lip, oral cavity and pharynx cancers (OR=5.35, 95% CI=0.69-29.40).Conclusion: Muslim religion and having malignant neoplasms of bone and articular cartilage were associated with the highest palliative care need. Future studies should focus on more in-depth examination of the reasons these groups have higher needs for palliative care.

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To date, an advance in medical technology and science increase the population’s life-span. Hence, palliative medicine, aiming to improve quality of life in patients’ life with incurable diseases becomes essentially significant. Palliative care is a holistic approach, incorporating physical, mental, social and spiritual health. Most Thai patients in the late stage of diseases prefer staying and receiving health care at home where they feel more familiar and restful. In addition, home is the place where they can be with their beloveds and relatives. Therefore, they would like to die at home rather than at hospital. However, many of them did not live, the way they want the remaining of their lives to be nor they die where they would like to die. This is because their caregivers could not manage the exacerbation of symptoms properly, along with the rapid progression of diseases, resulted in hospital admission at the end stage of patients’ lives. Hereafter, palliative home visit plays an important role to allow patients spend their precious time as they approach the end of their life and finally die peacefully at home as they wished. Palliative home visit must be well-planned and appropriate for each patient to ensure that patients, their families and caregivers receive the best health care, according to patients’ will.

Objective: To quantify the prevalence of eating disorders and factors associated with eating disorders among undergraduate students in Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai Campus.Material and Methods: This study was a cross sectional descriptive study using random sampling by proportionate accidental sampling. We used the Thai Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT-26) for collecting information about eating attitudes. Participants who had scores equal or higher than 12 (≥12) were assumed to have atypical eating attitudes and behaviors. We used the R and R studio program to analyze information. Multivariate logistic regression was used for correlation analysis.Results: In this study, we had completed questionnaires from 500 students (response rate 65.6%). The overall prevalence of atypical eating attitudes and behaviors in undergraduate students in Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai Campus was 37.2%. We found that overweight body mass index (BMI) (BMI 23.00-24.99 kg/m2) and obesity BMI (≥25.00 kg/m2) were significantly more prevalent in students with atypical eating attitudes and behaviors than normal BMI (18.50-22.99 kg/m2), with odds ratios of 3.3 [95% confidence interval (CI)=1.8-6.2] and 3.7 (95% CI=1.9-6.9), respectively. However, multivariate logistic regression revealed no associations between atypical eating attitudes and behaviors, sex, target weight, biological disease, psychological disease, current medication(s) or faculty. Atypical eating attitudes and behaviors were significantly associated only with body mass index BMI. The overweight and obese BMI groups had significantly increased risks of 3.3 and 3.7 times of atypical eating attitudes and behaviors compared to the normal group, with 95% CIs of 1.8-6.2 and 1.9-6.9, respectively.Conclusion: From this study, overweight BMI and obesity BMI were significantly more prevalent in students with atypical eating attitudes and behaviors than normal BMI. BMI was the only factor significantly associated with atypical eating attitudes and behaviors.