Supervisors info:
Ελισάβετ Πατηράκη, Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Νοσηλευτικής, ΕΚΠΑ
Στυλιανός Κατσαραγάκης, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Νοσηλευτικής, ΕΚΠΑ
Μαρία Χατζοπούλου, Ακαδημαϊκή Υπότροφος, Τμήμα Νοσηλευτικής, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
Introduction: The prevalence of diabetes mellitus shows increasing trends worldwide.
The complications of the disease have a significant impact on the health and quality
of life of patients. The assessment of problems and needs for palliative care assistance
is necessary in order to develop and implement interventions for their management.
Purpose: To assess palliative care problems and the need for help in adults with
diabetes mellitus attended in an outpatient clinic.
Method: The sample consisted of 100 patients with diagnosed diabetes mellitus who
came to the outpatient clinic of a public hospital for their regular three-month followup. The tools for data collection used were the PNPC-sv and the DQOL-BCI. The IBM
SPSS 28.0 Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used for the statistical analysis.
Results: Most patients were male (69%), married (54%), with mean age 61.18 ranged
between 28-85 years. 51% of the sample, almost half of the patients, were retired and
74% of the patients suffered from type 2 diabetes. From the responses of the patients,
the most prevalent palliative care problems were extra costs (64%), tingling or
numbness (62%), fatigue (60%), the fear of disease’s deterioration (59%) and the
uncertainty for the future (54%), while the lowest percentages were given to social115
issues. The needs for which patients wanted professional help were extra expenses
(46%), fear of disease’s deterioration (59%), loss of income (33%), uncertainty for the
future (36%), fatigue ( 34%) and depressed mood (31%). Additional expenses (32%),
loss of income (28%), deterioration of the disease (27.6%), uncertainty for the future
(25%) and depressed mood (22%) emerged as unsatisfied needs. The organic
symptoms such as fatigue (22%), sleep (22.4%) and tingling or numbness (20%) were
next. The last unsatisfied need was insufficient information (17.2%). The problems
that gathered the highest rates of avoiding care were fatigue (27%), tingling or
numbness (23%), sexual dysfunction (21%), extra costs (20%) and pain (19%). In all
questions there were a statistically significant positive correlation between each
palliative care problem and the need for professional help, so as the problem was
increased, he need for professional help was also increased (p<0.001). From the
investigation of the correlation of palliative care problems and needs with the
patients' quality of life, a statistically significant negative correlation emerges. This
means that as problems and needs for professional help were increased, the quality
of life of patients was decreased.
Conclusions: Patients with complications from diabetes mellitus mainly described
financial, psychological and organic problems which needed professional help
Keywords:
Palliative care, Diabetes melitus, Needs, Assessment, Quality of life
