Author Affiliations: Department of Nursing and Health Promotion, Faculty of Health Sciences, OsloMet-Oslo Metropolitan University (Ms Torstveit and Drs Løyland, Grov, and Utne); and Department of Oncology and K G Jebsen Colorectal Cancer Research Center, Oslo University Hospital (Dr Guren), Norway; School of Nursing, University of California, San Francisco (Drs Paul and Miaskowski); Division of Palliative Care and Geriatric Medicine and the Mongan Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston (Dr Ritchie); and Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Sorlandet Hospital Kristiansand (Dr Vistad); and Department of Clinical Sciences, University of Bergen (Dr Vistad), Norway.
Cancer Nurs. 2021;44(6):E735-E744. doi: 10.1097/NCC.0000000000000964.
The maintenance of physical function (PF) is an extremely important outcome for elderly people.
The aims of this study were to identify differences in the subjective and objective measures of PF between younger older adults (YOAs, 60-69 years of age) and older adults (OA, ≥70 years of age), to compare the PF scores with age-matched samples from the general population, and to evaluate for associations between the subjective and objective measures of PF.
Patients (n = 139) were assessed using subjective (ie, European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Core Quality-of-Life Questionnaire) and objective (ie, Short Physical Performance Battery [SPPB]) measures prior to chemotherapy (CTX). Data were analyzed using parametric and nonparametric tests.
No differences were found between the 2 age groups in any of the subjective or objective measures of PF. Compared with the age-matched general population, both YOAs and OAs had significantly lower scores in both measures of PF. Large effect sizes were found for differences in European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Core Quality-of-Life Questionnaire role function, SPPB balance, and SPPB total scores between the YOA group and the age-matched general population samples. Correlations between the subjective and objective measures were low.
Older patients with cancer have lower PF than their age-matched general population prior to CTX. Longitudinal studies are warranted to evaluate for changes in PF during and following CTX.
Nurses need to perform routine assessments of PF in older oncology patients prior to CTX. Our findings suggest that SPPB gait speed may be a useful screening measure for PF in older patients.
维持身体机能（PF）对于老年人来说是极其重要的。
本研究旨在确定年轻老年人（60-69 岁）和老年人（≥70 岁）在 PF 的主观和客观测量方面的差异，将 PF 评分与来自一般人群的年龄匹配样本进行比较，并评估 PF 的主观和客观测量之间的相关性。
患者（n=139）在接受化疗（CTX）前接受了主观（即欧洲癌症研究与治疗组织核心生活质量问卷）和客观（即短体适能电池[SPPB]）测量。数据分析采用参数和非参数检验。
在任何 PF 的主观或客观测量方面，两组年龄组之间均无差异。与年龄匹配的一般人群相比，年轻老年人和老年人在 PF 的两个测量指标上的得分均明显较低。在欧洲癌症研究与治疗组织核心生活质量问卷角色功能、SPPB 平衡和 SPPB 总分方面，年轻老年人组与年龄匹配的一般人群样本之间存在较大的差异效应量。主观和客观测量之间的相关性较低。
在接受 CTX 之前，患有癌症的老年患者的 PF 低于其年龄匹配的一般人群。需要进行纵向研究以评估 CTX 期间和之后 PF 的变化。
护士在对老年肿瘤患者进行 CTX 之前需要对其 PF 进行常规评估。我们的研究结果表明，SPPB 步态速度可能是老年患者 PF 的有用筛查指标。
