Social worker estimations of life span in terminal cancer patients

The objective of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of the social work er estimation (SWE) of the length of survival of patients who were seen at the end stage of their terminal illness, in home-based palliative care trea tment. Estimates were filled out on a form every 2 weeks during the time of the visits until the patient's discharge or death. The wording used by the social worker was the 'average survival period'. Survival was measured fro m the time of each survival prognostication until death from any cause. Bot h SWE and actual survival were categorized into less than or equal to4, 5-8 , 9-12 and > 12 weeks. Then, 29 estimates were analyzed using the SPSS stat istical software package. The mean and median actual survivals of the total cohort were 6.5 and 5.1 weeks, respectively. The minimum and maximum weeks of actual survival were 0.1 and 23.1, respectively. The mean and median di fferences between SWE and actual survival were 2.1 and 1.6 weeks, respectiv ely (range: 18.7, minimum and maximum differences of -7.3 and 11.4 weeks, r espectively). The Pearson correlation coefficient between actual survival a nd SWE was 0.827 (P < 0.001). Overall, 59% (17/29) were correctly assigned by social worker to the correct survival categories. Our study suggests tha t the oncology social worker can be a valuable resource for information abo ut the patient's prognosis of life span. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.