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Psychosocial needs of cancer patients and their spouses
Abstract
This study was conducted to determine if the five psychosocial needs that are attributed to individuals with life-threatening illness were important to patients diagnosed with cancer and to their spouses. The five needs--hope, honesty, information, emotional expression, and discussion of issues related to dying and death--were investigated using a sample of 70 cancer patients and their spouses. The purpose of this descriptive study was to compare the needs of spouses of cancer patients to the needs of cancer patients in the middle phase of the illness experience. Participants completed demographic information, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Brockopp Needs Assessment Inventory (BNAI). The BNAI has an acceptable test retest reliability of 0.69-0.98. Content validity was established by a panel of psychologists, nurses, and patients. Each individual was asked to prioritize 25 statements according to personal importance. Secondly, the participants were asked to weight each of the 25 statements from 1 to 5, with 1 being the most important. Study results showed that patients' and spouses' perceptions of the importance of each of the five psychosocial needs were similar. There were no significant differences in spouse and patient perceptions of the importance of these needs. The variable of prognosis ("good," "fair," "poor") did not affect patients' and spouses' perceptions of the importance of the needs for hope, honesty, emotional expression, or discussion of issues related to dying and death. However, when prognosis was "good," patients perceived an increased importance of the need for information. That is, patients wanted more information than did the spouses when the prognosis was "good." Patients and spouses did not differ on the perceived importance of the need for information when the prognosis was "fair" or "poor." The findings suggested that both patients' and spouses' psychosocial needs should be assessed early in the illness experience so that inventions for both patients and spouses can be made to assist them in coping with cancer diagnosis.
Subject Area
Nursing|Social psychology|Health education
Recommended Citation
Winscot, Carole Pfeifer, "Psychosocial needs of cancer patients and their spouses" (1993). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9402408.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9402408