Pflege
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Comparative Study
[Perception of symptom distress in lung cancer patients: I. Agreement between patients and their caregiving relatives].
This paper employs a comparative descriptive design to compare primary family caregivers' assessment of lung cancer patients' symptom distress with patients' own perceptions of symptom distress in the home setting. The second part describes the results of the qualitative component of this research. ⋯ No significant differences in ratings were found for 10 of the 13 symptoms assessed. Therefore, when the patient is unable to provide a self-report of symptom distress, health-care professionals may seriously consider family caregivers' assessments of patients' symptom distress to be reasonable estimates for at least 10 of the 13 symptoms on the SDS.