Comparing functional decline and distress from symptoms in people with thoracic life-limiting illnesses: Lung cancers and non-malignant end-stage respiratory diseases

Barnes-Harris, Matilda; Allingham, Samuel; Morgan, Deidre; Ferreira, Diana; Johnson, Miriam J.; Eagar, Kathy; Currow, David

Abstract

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. Background: Malignant and non-malignant respiratory diseases account for >4.6 million deaths annually worldwide. Despite similar symptom burdens, serious inequities in access to palliative care persists for people with non-malignant respiratory diseases. Aim: To compare functional decline and symptom distress in advanced malignant and non-malignant lung diseases using consecutive, routinely collected, point-of-care national data. Setting/participants: The Australian national Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration collects functional status (Australia-modified Karnofsky Performance Status (AKPS)) and symptom distress (patient-reported 0-10 numerical rating scale) in inpatient and community settings. Five years of data used Joinpoint and weighted scatterplot smoothing. Results: In lung cancers (89 904 observations; 18 586 patients) and non-malignant end-stage respiratory diseases (14 827 observations; 4279 patients), age at death was significantly lower in people with lung cancer (73 years; IQR 65-81) than non-malignant end-stage respiratory diseases (81 years; IQR 73-87 years; p

Citation

Barnes-Harris, M., Allingham, S., Morgan, D., Ferreira, D., Johnson, M. J., Eagar, K., & Currow, D. (2021). Comparing functional decline and distress from symptoms in people with thoracic life-limiting illnesses: Lung cancers and non-malignant end-stage respiratory diseases. Thorax, 76(10), 989-995. https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-216039

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 1, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Feb 16, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021-10
• Deposit Date: Oct 28, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 28, 2021
• Journal: Thorax
• Print ISSN: 0040-6376
• Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 76
• Issue: 10
• Pages: 989-995
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-216039
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3742723