Pain, fatigue, anxiety and depression in older home-dwelling people with cancer

Abstract

Aim: Globally, cancer incidence counts for more than 14 million cases and the number increases with age. The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of pain, fatigue, anxiety and depression in association with demographic and clinical factors. Design: A cross-sectional descriptive design was used. Methods: We performed descriptive statistics to analyse the questionnaires completed from 174 older home-dwelling people with cancer. Results: The people with cancer reported low occurrence of pain, fatigue, anxiety and depression. We found strong correlation between anxiety and depression. Women reported significantly higher scores of anxiety and depression than men. A higher pain score was associated with higher scores of fatigue and anxiety. Conclusions: Home care personnel meeting older home-dwelling people with cancer should emphasize these people’ mental health problems and be aware that pain, fatigue and anxiety may occur at the same time.