PERCEPTIONS OF SYMPTOM DISTRESS IN LUNG-CANCER PATIENTS .2. BEHAVIORAL-ASSESSMENT BY PRIMARY FAMILY CAREGIVERS

Literature on assessment of symptom distress has focused primarily on patients' and nurses' perceptions in the hospital setting. To date, no research has examined behavioral measurement and cues that primary fa mily caregivers respond to when assessing patients' level of distress arising from individual symptoms in the home setting The qualitative d ata obtained from 37 primary family caregivers of patients with lung c ancer was designed to augment quantitative results discussed elsewhere . Content analysis was performed on written responses to an open-ended questionnaire in which family caregivers identified cues that they re sponded to when assessing patients' distress from symptom items. The r esults identified the categories of impaired functioning and verbal cu es as the most frequent indices of symptom distress. This study docume nts that certain behavioral measures for assessing symptom distress ma y be clinically useful to observers. Primary family caregivers are sho wn in this study to take a limited multidimensional approach In the as sessment of patients' distress from symptoms. (C) U.S. Cancer Pain Rel ief Committee, 1997.