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

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.