Cited by 307Palliative Care and End-of-Life IssuesPalliative and Oncologic CareReligion, Spirituality, and Psychology

Symptom burden, depression, and spiritual well-being: a comparison of heart failure and advanced cancer patients

Open access
Bekelman, David B., Rumsfeld, John S., Havranek, Edward P., Yamashita, Traci E., Hutt, Evelyn, Gottlieb, Sheldon H., Dy, Sydney M., Kutner, Jean S.·2009·Journal of General Internal Medicine

Abstract

Background A lower proportion of patients with chronic heart failure receive palliative care compared to patients with advanced cancer.Objective We examined the relative need for palliative care in the two conditions by comparing symptom burden, psychological well-being, and spiritual well-being in heart failure and cancer patients.Design This was a cross-sectional study.Participants Sixty outpatients with symptomatic heart failure and 30 outpatients with advanced lung or pancreatic cancer.Measurements Symptom burden (Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale-Short Form), depression symptoms (Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form), and spiritual well-being (Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being scale).Main results Overall, the heart failure patients and the cancer patients had similar numbers of physical symptoms (9.1 vs. 8.6, p = 0.79), depression scores (3.9 vs. 3.2, p = 0.53), and spiritual well-being (35.9 vs. 39.0, p = 0.31) after adjustment for age, gender, marital status, education, and income. Symptom burden, depression symptoms, and spiritual well-being were also similar among heart failure patients with ejection fraction < or =30, ejection fraction >30, and cancer patients. Heart failure patients with worse heart failure-related health status had a greater number of physical symptoms (13.2 vs. 8.6, p = 0.03), higher depression scores (6.7 vs. 3.2, p = 0.001), and lower spiritual well-being (29.0 vs. 38.9, p < 0.01) than patients with advanced cancer.Conclusions Patients with symptomatic heart failure and advanced cancer have similar needs for palliative care as assessed by symptom burden, depression, and spiritual well-being. This implies that heart failure patients, particularly those with more severe heart failure, need the option of palliative care just as cancer patients do.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1007/s11606-009-0931-y

Cites

72 of 72 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • As symptoms worsen, many CHF patients become dependent on carers, which adversely affects their sense of identity and will to live.

    “As symptoms worsen, many CHF patients become dependent on carers, which adversely affects their sense of identity and will to live. 6 , 15”

    From Prioritizing symptom management in the treatment of chronic heart failure (2020) · cites this paper as [6]

    The Results (page not provided) link worse heart-failure health status with greater symptom burden and worse spiritual well-being; the Introduction also describes functional limitations. The paper does not establish that worsening symptoms cause dependence on carers or damage patients’ sense of identity and will to live. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • The symptom burden for CHF patients has been likened to those with advanced cancer or acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

    “The symptom burden for CHF patients has been likened to those with advanced cancer or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, 6 , 12”

    From Prioritizing symptom management in the treatment of chronic heart failure (2020) · cites this paper as [6]

    The Results (page unavailable) report similar symptom burden in outpatients with symptomatic heart failure and advanced cancer. The paper compares heart failure with advanced lung or pancreatic cancer, but our copy does not address acquired immune deficiency syndrome; a search for AIDS found no relevant passage. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Despite optimal medical management and device therapy, patients often have persistent symptoms and long-term reductions in quality of life.

    “Despite optimal medical management and device therapy, patients often have persistent symptoms and long‐term reductions in quality of life (QoL)”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 73 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. Chang VT, Hwang SS, Feuerman M, Kasimis BS, Thaler HT. The memorial symptom assessment scale short form (MSAS-SF). Cancer. 2000;89(5):1162-71.
  2. Yesavage JA. Geriatric Depression Scale. Psychopharmacol Bull. 1988;24(4):709-11.
  3. Arthur A, Jagger C, Lindesay J, Graham C, Clarke M. Using an annual over-75 health check to screen for depression: validation of the short Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS15) within general practice. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 1999;14(6):431-9.
  4. Brady MJ, Peterman AH, Fitchett G, Mo M, Cella D. A case for including spirituality in quality of life measurement in oncology. Psychooncology. 1999;8(5):417-28.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Bekelman, D. B., Rumsfeld, J. S., Havranek, E. P., Yamashita, T. E., Hutt, E., Gottlieb, S. H., Dy, S. M., & Kutner, J. S.
Affiliations
  • University of Colorado Anschutz (US)
  • VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System (US)
  • Denver Health Medical Center (US)
  • Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center (US)
  • Johns Hopkins University (US)
Corresponding author
Bekelman, David B.
Venue
Journal of General Internal Medicine
Published
2009-03-14
Volume
24
Issue
5
Pages
592-598
ISSN
  • 0884-8734 (ISSN-L)
  • 1525-1497
OpenAlex
W2064454083
Cited by
306
References
73
Citations by year
2026: 12 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 26 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 18
FWCI
12.77
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of General Internal Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • American Heart Association
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • National Institutes of Health
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Palliative and Oncologic Care
  • Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
Keywords
heart failure, advanced cancer, palliative care, symptom burden, depression, spiritual well-being, psychological well-being, ejection fraction, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer
MeSH terms
Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cross-Sectional Studies, Depression, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Neoplasms, Palliative Care, Quality of Life, Spirituality

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review