European journal of oncology nursing : the official journal of European Oncology Nursing Society
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Comparative Study
Symptoms in the cancer patient: of importance for their caregivers' quality of life and mental health?
To examine the level of symptom burden in a sample of cancer patients in a curative and palliative phase. In addition to determine a) whether the patients' symptom burden and patients' demographic variables, and b) the caregivers' demographic variables' impact on the caregivers' quality of life and mental health. ⋯ In this study no significant differences were revealed when comparing symptom burden among cancer patients in different stages of the disease. Caregivers reported more depression when patients had trouble sleeping and more declined mental quality of life when patients were younger. Female caregivers reported more anxiety than male caregivers.