Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T04:19:23.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

International comparison study on the primary concerns of terminally ill cancer patients in short-term life review interviews among Japanese, Koreans, and Americans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2009

Michiyo Ando ,
Tatsuya Morita ,
Sung-Hee Ahn ,
Felicia Marquez-Wong  and
Saburo Ide
Michiyo Ando*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Nursing, St. Mary's College, Kurume City, Fukuoka, Japan
Tatsuya Morita
Affiliation:
Department of Palliative and Supportive Care, Palliative Care Team, Seirei Hospice, Seirei Mikatahara General Hospital, Hamamatsu, Japan
Sung-Hee Ahn
Affiliation:
Korean College of Nursing, The Catholic Univesity of Korea, Soul, Korea
Felicia Marquez-Wong
Affiliation:
St. Francis Community Health Services, Honolulu, Hawaii
Saburo Ide
Affiliation:
Faculty of Nursing, St. Mary's College, Kurume City, Fukuoka, Japan
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Michiyo Ando, St. Mary's College, Tsubukuhonmachi 422, Kurume City, Fukuoka, Japan. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objective:

The aim of this study was to investigate the primary concerns of terminally ill cancer patients in a Short-Term Life Review among Japanese, Koreans, and Americans to develop intervention programs to be tailored to patients in other countries.

Method:

Twenty Japanese, 16 Korean, and 7 American terminally ill cancer patients who were in the hospice wards of general Christian hospitals in each country participated in this study. Medical staff members (nurses, social workers, clinical psychologists) performed Short-Term Life Review Interviews with each patient. Patients reviewed their lives in the first session, the interviewers made simple albums for each patient in the week following the first session, and patients and interviewers then confirmed the contents of the album. The treatment period was 1 week. Measurement instruments included the Functional Assessment Chronic Illness Therapy–Spiritual (FACIT-Sp) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The contents of each interview session were transcribed, and correspondence analysis and a significance test were conducted on these data to select characteristic words or phrases.

Results:

Using the FACIT-Sp scores, the following concerns were chosen, in descending order of frequency. In Japan, primary concerns consisted of such ideas as “good human relationships and transcendence,” “achievements and satisfaction,” “good memories and important things,” and “bitter memories.” In Korea, “religious life,” “right behavior for living,” “strong consideration for children and will,” and “life for living” were primary concerns. In the United States, “love, pride, will to children,” “good, sweet memories,” and “regret and a feeling of loss” were primary concerns.

Significance of results:

We clarify the differences among the primary concerns from the Short-Term Life Reviews, arguing that we can improve the spiritual well-being of terminally ill cancer patients by focusing on the primary concerns within each country.

Keywords

International comparisonPsychotherapyShort-Term Life ReviewTerminally ill patientsSpiritual well-being
Type
Original Articles
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , September 2009 , pp. 349 - 355
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ando, M., Morita, T. & O'Conner, S. (2007 a). Primary concerns of advanced cancer patients identified through the constructive life review process: A qualitative study using a text mining technique. Palliative & Supportive Care, 5, 265–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ando, M., Morita, T., Okamoto, T., et al. (2008). One week Short-Term Life Review interview can improve spiritual well-being of terminally ill cancer patients. Psycho-Oncology, 17, 885–890.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ando, M., Morita, T. & Tsuda, A. (2007 b). A preliminary study of life review interviews on the spiritual well-being of terminally ill cancer patients. Supportive Care in Cancer, 15, 225–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breitbart, W., Gibson, C., Poppito, S.R., et al. (2004). Psychotherapeutic interventions at the end of life: A focus on meaning and spirituality. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 49, 366–372.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chochinov, H.M., Hack, T., Hassard, T., et al. (2005). Dignity Therapy: A novel psychotherapeutic intervention for patients near the end of life. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 23, 5520–5525.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
George, L.K., Ellison, C.G. & Larson, D.B. (2002). Explaining the relationship between religious involvement and health. Psychological Inquiry, 13, 190–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Japan Information Processing Service. (2003). Word Miner, version 1.1, Tokyo: Japan Electronic Company.Google Scholar
Jenkins, R.A. & Pargament, K.I. (1995). Religion and spirituality as resources for coping with cancer. Journal of Psychological Oncology, 13, 51–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kissane, D.W., Bloch, S., Smith, G.C., et al. (2003). Cognitive-existential group psychotherapy for women with primary breast cancer: A randomized controlled trial. Psycho-Oncology, 12, 532–546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kugaya, A., Akechi, T., Okuyama, T., et al. (1998). Screening for psychological distress in Japanese cancer patients. Japan Journal of Clinical Oncology, 28, 333–338.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McClain, C.S., Rosenfeld, B. & Breitbart, W. (2003). Effect of spiritual well-being on end-of-life despair in terminally-ill patients. Lancet, 361, 1603–1607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murata, H. & Morita, T. (2006). Conceptualization of psycho-existential suffering by the Japanese Task Force: The first step of a nationwide project. Palliative & Supportive Care, 4, 279–285.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nelson, C.J., Rosenfeld, B., Breitbart, W., et al. (2002). Spirituality, religion, and depression in the terminally ill. Psychosomatics, 43, 213–220.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Noguchi, W., Ono, T., Morita, T., et al. (2004). An investigation of reliability and validity to Japanese version of Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual (FACIT-sp). Japan Journal of General Hospital Psychiatry, 16, 42–47.Google Scholar
Oosumi, N. (2006). Word Miner Case studies. Tokyo: Japan Electric Company.Google Scholar
Peterman, A.H., Fitchett, G., Brady, M.J., et al. (2002). Measuring spiritual well-being in people with cancer: The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp). Annals of Behaviorial Medicine, 24, 49–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wegberg, B.V., Bacchi, M., Heusser, P., et al. (1998). The cognitive-spiritual dimension: An important addition to the assessment of quality of life: Validation of a questionnaire (SELT-M) in patients with advanced cancer. Annals of Oncology, 9, 1091–1096.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zigmond, A.S. & Snaith, R.P. (1983). The hospital anxiety and depression scale. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavia, 67, 361–370.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed