The COVID-19 pandemic: a new epoch and fresh challenges for cancer patients and caregivers—a descriptive cross-sectional study

Seema Mishra, Raghav Gupta, Sushma Bhatnagar, Rakesh Garg, Sachidanand Jee Bharati, Vinod Kumar, Nishkarsh Gupta

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Purpose: Cancer patients and their caregivers are overwhelmed with features of uncertainty, fear, shock, worry, anxiety, sadness, and grief. To add on to their misery, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely afflicted the cancer care delivery. The study was conducted to observe the challenges faced by cancer patients and their caregivers and to formulate strategies for oncological setups to overcome those challenges. Methods: After obtaining institutional ethical clearance, a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to observe the challenges faced by patients and their caregivers at the level of various domains (physical, logistic, psychological, socioeconomic, and spiritual) who visited the outpatient and inpatient department of cancer pain and palliative care unit. The results were expressed in absolute numbers. Results: Major challenges encountered were suffering from physical symptoms like pain, nausea, vomiting, dyspnea (90%), postponement of cancer treatment (80%), fear of contracting COVID infection due to hospital visit (93.5%), lack of accommodation (70%), and lack of spiritual clarity and hope (50%). Conclusions: Major challenges faced by patients were in physical and psychological domains, and those by caregivers were in socioeconomic domains and handling physical symptoms of their patients. It is imperative to recognize and be cognizant of the challenges faced by cancer patients and their caregivers. Health care setups should formulate strategies to alleviate these challenges and provide holistic care to cancer patients. These strategies will hold in good stead for future pandemics also.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1547-1555
Number of pages9
JournalSupportive Care in Cancer
Volume30
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2022
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Keywords

  • Cancer patients
  • Caregivers
  • Challenges
  • COVID-19 pandemic
  • Strategies

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The COVID-19 pandemic: a new epoch and fresh challenges for cancer patients and caregivers—a descriptive cross-sectional study'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this