Zhang Meiying, Zhao Yuxia, Lu Yifu, Peng Mengyun
Department of Outpatient, Cancer Hospital Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Cancer Hospital Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
Front Public Health. 2025 Mar 5;13:1511697. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1511697. eCollection 2025.
Palliative care plays a crucial role in improving the quality of life for cancer patients, particularly those in advanced stages of the disease. Despite its proven benefits, attitudes toward palliative care vary widely among patients due to cultural beliefs, personal values, and awareness of available services. Understanding cancer patients' perspectives on palliative care is essential for enhancing end-of-life care strategies and ensuring that interventions align with their preferences. However, limited research has explored patients' attitudes toward palliative care in China, highlighting the need for further investigation.
To explore the current status of cancer patients' palliative care attitudes, identify subgroups of attitudes and examine influencing factors for different subgroups; and understand the cancer patients' perceptions of palliative care.
A multi-method design was used. 541 cancer patients participated from March to June 2024. A latent profile analysis (LPA) was conducted to identify subgroups. The differences between the variables including sociodemographic characteristics and subgroups were explored, and participants also responded to open-ended questions about what perceptions on palliative care, and content analysis identified themes most frequently reported.
Palliative care attitudes among cancer patients were low. Four different subgroups of palliative care attitudes and three themes about perspectives were confirmed. Education status, occupational status, primary caregivers, type of insurance, cancer stage, anxiety, and level of palliative care knowledge were significant factors affecting different groups ( < 0.05).
Majority of cancer patients had poor attitudes toward palliative care, confirming the major factors and perspectives of palliative care. These results emphasize the importance that should be given to the dissemination of knowledge and education about palliative care for cancer patients, and to improve the acceptance and recognition in order to promote palliative care practice.
姑息治疗在提高癌症患者生活质量方面发挥着关键作用，尤其是对疾病晚期患者。尽管其益处已得到证实，但由于文化信仰、个人价值观以及对现有服务的认知，患者对姑息治疗的态度差异很大。了解癌症患者对姑息治疗的看法对于加强临终关怀策略以及确保干预措施符合他们的偏好至关重要。然而，在中国，对患者对姑息治疗态度的研究有限，这凸显了进一步调查的必要性。
探讨癌症患者姑息治疗态度的现状，确定态度亚组并检查不同亚组的影响因素；了解癌症患者对姑息治疗的认知。
采用多方法设计。2024年3月至6月，541名癌症患者参与。进行潜在剖面分析（LPA）以识别亚组。探讨包括社会人口学特征和亚组在内的变量之间的差异，参与者还回答了关于对姑息治疗看法的开放式问题，内容分析确定了最常报告的主题。
癌症患者对姑息治疗的态度较低。确认了四个不同的姑息治疗态度亚组和三个关于看法的主题。教育程度、职业状况、主要照顾者、保险类型、癌症分期、焦虑程度和姑息治疗知识水平是影响不同组的重要因素（<0.05）。
大多数癌症患者对姑息治疗态度不佳，确定了姑息治疗的主要因素和看法。这些结果强调了应重视对癌症患者进行姑息治疗知识和教育的传播，并提高接受度和认可度，以促进姑息治疗实践。
