Žaneta Valiulienė, Arvydas Šeškevičius
Abstract
Oncological diseases were and still are important problem of public health in all around the world. Every year about 9 million people become sick from oncological diseases. There are annually registered up to 14 thousand new cases of cancer in Lithuania. Although about 50 percent of patients are curable, the disease still frightens world’s population. Doctors are concerned about the increasing incidence of cancer. According to morbidity and mortality the cancer ranks third among all oncological diseases. However, the diagnosis of malignant growth is heavy; the disease is often found too late. The problem is that 25 percent of neglected cancer is detected for the first visit patients. Therefore, most of them need palliative care. In Lithuania incidence of cardiovascular diseases remains high. In 2009 there were 23822 patients with heart deficiency. According to the data of Statistics Department of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Lithuania, heart diseases are at the first place of mortality. Cardiovascular diseases comprise one third of disability reasons. The aim of investigation – to identify physical health problems of palliative patients with oncological ill and chronic heart deficiency of IV stage. The investigation was carried out on April 1st 2010 – April 30th 2011 in 5 hospitals of maintenance treatment and care. The results revealed that palliative oncological patients suffered anguish, it disturbed common activity, mood, sleep and ability to walk. Oncological patients stated that a hospital personnel effectively deals with the pain. They told that they feel physical weakness, suffer from general body exhaustion, fatigue, nausea and vomiting. The patients with chronic heart deficiency stated that they constantly feel choke, suffer from insomnia, swelling of the feet and pain in chest area.
Article in Lithuanian
doi:10.5200/sm-hs.2012.118
Keyword(s): palliative help; health problems
DOI: 10.5200/363
Full Text: PDF