Self-perception of cancer patients on the relationship existing between their nutritional status, their feeding status, and their illness

Introduction: Knowing the opinion of oncologic patients about the importance they give to their feeding, the difficulties they have with feeding, their body image, weight, and ponderal changes, the relationship between their feeding and their illness, the relationship between their physical activity and their mood and health is essential to look for nutritional therapeutic interventions leading to improvement of quality of life and, in general, the feeling of well being. Thus, it is paramount to know the patients' opinion of these issues. Material and methods: We passed a questionnaire to 131 patients. The patients were recruited from the Day-Hospital of the Medical Oncology and Radiotherapeutic Oncology Departments, and from the Hospitalization Department of Medical Oncology. In the questionnaire, we asked in a simple manner about the importance the patients give to all these issues. This is a 20-item questionnaire, divided into six parts: 1. Vital statistics; 2) perception about the disease and its relationship with feeding; 3) Perception of the relationship between physical activity and mood with feeding; 4) Nutritional therapies prescribed to the patients and their perception on its effect on the disease progression; 5) Current difficulties with feeding; 6) Demand of nutritional care. Results: The patients mean age was 57 13 years. 45% were males, and the remaining females. 81% life in an urban area, and only 14% in a rural area. The educational level was categorized in 5 groups: without education, basic education, elementary school, high school, or college studies. 28% had basic education, and 19% college studies, and only 8% had no education at all. Their occupation was also categorized in five groups: home-keeping, student, unemployed, employed, and retired. 33% were employed, 29% retired, and 34% were home-keepers. Most of the patients (74%) are aware of their illness and perceive it as severe or very much severe. Most of these patients worry about their body image, weight, and ponderal changes, and they relate them with their fee-ding status. 74% find a relationship between their nutritional status and their physical activity, and 73% relate it with their mood. At least half of the patients perceive their mood as being low. Although 47% manifested having some difficulty for feeding, only 34% had received some information about their diet, 26% had consumed nutritional supplements, and 81% still consumed their diet without any change. The most common difficulties for feeding were decreased appetite (38%), early satiety (32%), and nausea (20%). The nutritional intervention most commonly required by the patients was general and specific nutritional education to alleviate the symptoms associated to oncologic therapies. Conclusions: Most of the patients are aware of the severity of their illness and care about their body image, weight, and ponderal changes, which they associate with their nutrition. Most of the patients find a close relationship between their nutritional status, their physical activity and their mood. More than half of the patients manifest having some difficulty feeding, but only one third of the population has received information about their diet some time. It is clearly shown that oncologic patients need different effective nutritional intervention measures contributing to improve their feeling of well being.