Abstract
Symptom control is an important component of palliative care. The degree of distress caused by symptoms is individual. Instruments to measure symptom distress in patients with cancer have been developed, but have been poorly validated in the terminally ill. This study was an exploratory, descriptive, cross-sectional survey of 49 dying cancer patients, 60 professional carers (doctors and nurses) and 30 bereaved relatives. Semi-structured interviews were used to identify distressing symptoms for the dying cancer patient. The results indicated a diversity in the symptom experience and were used in the development of a physical symptom distress scale. Items were selected from a pool of symptoms generated from the three data sources, and compared with the literature of symptom distress in general cancer patients and symptom prevalence studies in terminal care. These were then compared with existing symptom distress scales. An adaptation of the physical sub-scale of the Rotterdam Symptom Checklist is proposed.
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