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Nausea at the start of specialized palliative care and change in nausea after the first weeks of palliative care were associated with cancer site, gender, and type of palliative care service—a nationwide study

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Abstract

Purpose

Nausea is a common and distressful symptom among patients in palliative care, but little is known about possible socio-demographic and clinical patient characteristics associated with nausea at the start of palliative care and change after initiation of palliative care. The aim of this study was to investigate whether patient characteristics were associated with nausea at the start of palliative care and with change in nausea during the first weeks of palliative care, respectively.

Methods

Data was obtained from the nationwide Danish Palliative Care Database. The study included adult cancer patients who were admitted to palliative care and died between June 2016 and December 2020 and reported nausea level at the start of palliative care and possibly 1–4 weeks later. The associations between patient characteristics and nausea at the start of palliative care and change in nausea during palliative care, respectively, were studied using multiple regression analyses.

Results

Nausea level was reported at the start of palliative care by 23,751 patients of whom 8037 also reported 1–4 weeks later. Higher nausea levels were found for women, patients with stomach or ovarian cancer, and inpatients at the start of palliative care. In multivariate analyses, cancer site was the variable most strongly associated with nausea change; the smallest nausea reductions were seen for myelomatosis and no reduction was seen for stomach cancer.

Conclusion

This study identified subgroups with the highest initial nausea level and those with the least nausea reduction after 1–4 weeks of palliative care. These latter findings should be considered in the initial treatment plan.

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Data availability

The data utilized in this study are available through the Danish Palliative Care Database. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Danish Palliative Care Database for access to the data used in the article and all the specialized palliative care services in Denmark who delivered the data to the Danish Palliative Care Database.

Funding

The Danish Cancer society (grant number R56-A3126-12-S2).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Palliative Care Research Unit, Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine GP, Bispebjerg/Frederiksberg Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Bispebjerg Bakke 23, NV, DK-2400, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Maiken Bang Hansen, Mathilde Adsersen, Leslye Rojas-Concha, Morten Aagaard Petersen, Lone Ross & Mogens Groenvold

  2. Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, DK-1353, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Mogens Groenvold

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  1. Maiken Bang Hansen
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Data analyses were performed by Maiken Bang Hansen and Morten Aagaard Petersen. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Maiken Bang Hansen and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maiken Bang Hansen.

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Ethics approval

This study was based only on registers from the Danish Palliative Care Database; therefore, it had not impact on any individuals’ care and not required Ethics Committee approval according to Danish law. The study was conducted following the approval from the Danish Data Protection Agency (j.nr.: 2007–58-0015/local j.nr. BFH-2014–033 I-Suite no. 02953).

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Hansen, M.B., Adsersen, M., Rojas-Concha, L. et al. Nausea at the start of specialized palliative care and change in nausea after the first weeks of palliative care were associated with cancer site, gender, and type of palliative care service—a nationwide study. Support Care Cancer 30, 9471–9482 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-022-07310-0

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