Distress Screening among Patients with Hematological Malignancies: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Distress is a major concern during diagnosis and treatment of hematological malignancies. The Distress Thermometer is a commonly used screening tool to detect distress. The objectives of this study was to know the prevalence and identify distress score among patients with hematological malignancies in Nepal. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was carried out at the Hematology Unit of Civil Service Hospital after obtaining an ethical approval from the Institutional Review Committee (reference number 931/076/077). A convenient sampling technique was used for this study. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20.0 was used. All patients within one week of diagnosis and before the start of definitive treatment of hematological malignancies were included in the study. National Comprehensive Cancer Network Psychosocial Distress Screening Tool was used to measure the seriousness of distress. Results: A total of 100 patients were enrolled in the study, among them 56 (56%) were male and 44 (44%) were female. The mean distress score in our study was found to be 5.68 +/- 1.75. Mean distress score among male and female patients were 5.84 +/- 1.65 and 5.48 +/- 1.86 respectively. Thirty three percentage (n=33) of patient had mild distress whereas, sixty six percentage (n=67) of patients experienced moderate to severe distress. Conclusions: There was a significant level of distress among the patients with hematological malignancies in Nepal. Therefore, distress screening should be done to all the patients when initial diagnosis is made.