Assessment of pain, fatigue, sleep and quality of life (QoL) in elderly hospitalized cancer patients

As the proportion of older adults in the population continues to grow, the number of patients with cancer is expected to increase proportionally. In the previously conducted studies, data on elderly cancer patients were generally compared with the QoL scores of elderly patient group and with the data of non-cancer individuals. The purpose of this study was to examine differences in reported pain, fatigue, sleep problems and QoL between middle-aged and elderly hospitalized patients with cancer. We included 53 middle-aged (between 18 and 50 years) hospitalized cancer patients and 47 elderly (>60 years) hospitalized cancer patients in this study. Pain (visual analog scale = VAS, verbal pain rating), fatigue (brief fatigue inventory = BFI), sleep problems, QoL (Short Form 36 = SF36), and European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC)-QoL-C30 data were gathered using standardized measures. In the elderly group, no significant difference was detected in terms of VAS, verbal pain rating, fatigue, fatigue type, sleep problems and QoL scores (p > 0.05). When the two age groups were compared, BFI scores were found to be significantly high among the elderly patients (p < 0.05). A significant relationship was observed in both age groups between the scores of pain, fatigue and sleep problems, and QoL (p < 0.05). Elderly hospitalized cancer patients did not demonstrate a distinctive difference in terms of pain, sleep and QoL compared to the younger group. The relationship between pain, fatigue, sleep and QoL should be definitely kept in mind in clinical practice.