Psychosocial needs of cancer patients and related factors: a multi‐center, cross‐sectional study in Korea

Abstract

Unmet psychosocial needs were common in cancer patients and have varied according to patients' socio-demographic and clinical factors. These results suggest that a psychosocial approach to treatment should be applied comprehensively and that such an approach should be matched to patients' socio-demographic and clinical circumstances.

Psychosocial needs of low-income people with cancer in Korea

“…McIllmurray et al (2001) reported that the participants of lower socioeconomic status have significantly higher levels of need, although this was minimal (23%) in participants as a whole, thus supporting the result of this study. This is consistent with Choi et al (2013), who reported economic support as the greatest social support need for people with cancer in Korea. This suggests that financial support for people with cancer, whether their income is high or low, is especially important in Korea.…”

“…This was connected with marital status which ranked as the second predictive factor. This is consistent with the studies (Choi et al, 2013;Ha and Song, 2013) showing that people with cancer or other disease who live alone reported a greater need for help with loneliness or feeling of isolation. Therefore, oncology nurses need to include the opportunity to share suffering feelings in delivering interventions (Yi et al, 2011).…”

“…This result is similar to the work of Soothill et al (2001) and Choi et al (2013). Soothill et al (2001) found it to be the highest unmet need (35%), although the percentage was lower than in the present study.…”

“…That is, unmet needs in dealing with emotional problems, such as sad feelings, fear, and loneliness, were rated relatively high. This is also similar to the previous studies with ordinary people with cancer (Barg et al, 2007;Choi et al, 2013;Harrison et al, 2009;SansonFisher et al, 2000;Soothill et al, 2001). Thus, oncology nurses need to pay special attention to assess emotional and spiritual areas of people with cancer to provide timely intervention, although they do not report to be important needs.…”

Psychosocial Information Requirements for Multimorbid Breast Cancer Patients in Breast Centres in North Rhine Westphalia

“…Adverse psychosocial effects are associated with unfulfilled psychosocial requirements [8]. On this subject, Choi et al described the importance of being given sufficient information [9]. According to Maslowʼs "A theory of human motivation", human needs are ordered in the following hierarchical structure: Physiology (highest), safety, love and self-realisation.…”