Association between attendance at a specialist palliative care day unit and improvement in patient symptoms and quality of life

BACKGROUND

Specialist palliative day care is an area of palliative care which has a notable scarcity of research. Evidence is needed on the role of palliative day care to improve patients' quality of life and symptom management, while recognising the different patient cohorts that use the service.

AIM

To determine the symptoms and quality of life of the patient cohort that are affected by the completion of a full therapeutic cycle (8 to 9 weeks) at a specialist palliative care day unit (SPCDU).

METHOD

A retrospective cohort study was carried out from January 2016 to December 2017. Patient related outcome measures (PROMs) were collected as part of routine clinical paperwork at admission and discharge, and these were used to determine symptoms and quality of life pre-attendance and on completion of an 8 to 9 week therapeutic cycle at the SPCDU.

RESULTS

Descriptive analysis demonstrated improvement across the many symptoms that were analysed. Quality of life analysis also established improvement. Statistically significant difference was achieved in several areas. Total physical symptoms (p value=.009) confirmed the positive impact attendance at SPCDU has on physical symptoms. Specific symptoms which displayed a statistically significant difference included: poor appetite (p value=.002), weakness (p value=.03) and the anxiety felt by family/friends (p value=.029). The quality of a patient's life also displayed statistically significant difference (p value=.000).

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates that attendance at a SPCDU may positively impact a patients' symptoms and quality of life. A more uniform national approach to specialist palliative day care delivery, alongside multi-setting research, may further bolster the image of palliative day care. This will improve referrals to and occupancy of SPDCUs and benefit the palliative patient in the community.