• David B Bekelman, John S Rumsfeld, Edward P Havranek, Traci E Yamashita, Evelyn Hutt, Sheldon H Gottlieb, Sydney M Dy, and Jean S Kutner.
• Department of Medicine, University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Aurora, CO 80045, USA. David.Bekelman@ucdenver.edu
• J Gen Intern Med. 2009 May 1;24(5):592-8.

BackgroundA lower proportion of patients with chronic heart failure receive palliative care compared to patients with advanced cancer.ObjectiveWe examined the relative need for palliative care in the two conditions by comparing symptom burden, psychological well-being, and spiritual well-being in heart failure and cancer patients.DesignThis was a cross-sectional study.ParticipantsSixty outpatients with symptomatic heart failure and 30 outpatients with advanced lung or pancreatic cancer.MeasurementsSymptom burden (Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale-Short Form), depression symptoms (Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form), and spiritual well-being (Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being scale).Main ResultsOverall, the heart failure patients and the cancer patients had similar numbers of physical symptoms (9.1 vs. 8.6, p = 0.79), depression scores (3.9 vs. 3.2, p = 0.53), and spiritual well-being (35.9 vs. 39.0, p = 0.31) after adjustment for age, gender, marital status, education, and income. Symptom burden, depression symptoms, and spiritual well-being were also similar among heart failure patients with ejection fraction < or =30, ejection fraction >30, and cancer patients. Heart failure patients with worse heart failure-related health status had a greater number of physical symptoms (13.2 vs. 8.6, p = 0.03), higher depression scores (6.7 vs. 3.2, p = 0.001), and lower spiritual well-being (29.0 vs. 38.9, p < 0.01) than patients with advanced cancer.ConclusionsPatients with symptomatic heart failure and advanced cancer have similar needs for palliative care as assessed by symptom burden, depression, and spiritual well-being. This implies that heart failure patients, particularly those with more severe heart failure, need the option of palliative care just as cancer patients do.

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