Correlação entre capacidade funcional e qualidade de vida em pacientes oncológicos em cuidados paliativos

Abstract

Palliative care is described as a set of therapies that aim to minimize the negative implications of serious life-threatening diseases on the well-being of the affected individual. The progression of the disease and the symptoms cause a gradual and generalized deterioration of the patient's condition, the physical symptoms cause a progressive loss of functional capacity, associated with the emotional manifestations due to the moment in which the patient finds himself, impacting on his quality of life. Thus, the objective of this study was to correlate the functional capacity with the quality of life of cancer patients in palliative care. This is a quantitative research, carried out at Hospital do Câncer Dr. Tarquínio Lopes Filho, located in São Luís - MA, approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Maranhão (consubstantiated opinion no 4.711.612). A total of 225 individuals participated in the study. The data were collected through a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Barthel index and the European Organization for Research in the Treatment of Cancer Palliative Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL). Homogeneity between genders was observed among the individuals studied, with a mean age of 55.73±15.14 years. Statistical analysis showed a positive association between the Barthel Index score and the EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL quality of life score with a coefficient of 0.74, adopting a significance level of p<0.05, as well as a negative correlation for the functional and symptom subscales with a coefficient of -0.702 and -0.544, respectively. Thus, it is concluded that there is a significant correlation between functional capacity and quality of life in cancer patients in palliative care.