Care Needs and Symptom Burden among Oncology Patients Presenting to Outpatients Clinics in Kuwait

Patients with serious illnesses, such as oncology patients, experience sophisticated and interrelated symptoms. Mostly, they are not given proper symptom management, negatively affecting their quality of life, functioning, and satisfaction.

The current study aimed to assess the general patients’ health status, functioning needs, and the severity of symptoms among oncology patients in outpatient clinics in Kuwait.

A descriptive cross-sectional design was used to collect data from 460 oncology patients recruited from the chemotherapy day-care center and the radiotherapy treatment clinics in a large oncology center in Kuwait. Data were collected using the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire.

Kuwaiti patients diagnosed with cancer have poor well-being and functioning. The best level of functioning among the patients was cognitive functioning, followed by physical functioning, and the lowest functioning was emotional functioning. In terms of symptom burden, generally, the patients had low levels of symptom severity/ burden (all symptoms scored less than 50%). Furthermore, the highest severity was insomnia, followed by fatigue.

There is a need to develop a care model that adequately assesses oncology patients in outpatient settings and meets their needs. The implications of the current study are derived from the reported limitation in patients’ functioning; patients need to be assessed adequately and require psychosocial support referrals to improve their well-being and QOL.