Needs Assessment for the Beneficiaries of Home-Based Cancer Patients Management Project / 農村醫學 地域保健

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: This study was performed to investigate the service needs of the beneficiaries who had enrolled in home-based management programs for cancer patients. METHODS: From March to May 2009, 676 cancer patients who were registered in home-based cancer patient management programs were selected as subjects for this study. The data were collected using a questionnaire along with a face-to-face interview performed by officers in charge of the home-based care programs of 47 regional health centers. Fifteen patients were excluded due to incomplete data, leaving 661 subjects who were ultimately enrolled in the study. RESULTS: The mean age of subjects was 64.0 +/- 12.5 years, and males comprised 45.1% (298/661) of the sample. The results of factor analysis for service needs showed that there were five main categories and Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.593 to 0.890 for each factor. The service needs categories in order of importance were social support, information and education, psychological problems, physical symptoms and household chores. The service needs scores were significantly different when subjects were stratified by age, habitation, religion and disease classification. When we divided the subjects into complete remission, under treatment and terminally ill groups, the needs scores of the terminally ill patient group were significantly higher than those of the other groups (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Service provision based on patient and beneficiary needs could be an effective intervention to reduce the economic burden of cancer management and to improve the quality of life of cancer patients receiving home-based care. Therefore, it is recommended that individual cancer patient care programs be developed and administered according to patient age, habitation and disease severity.