Reporting of cancer-related fatigue in palliative care journals

Abstract

Introduction: Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is a highly prevalent symptom in patients with cancer. Palliative care clinical practice depends upon an evidence-based decisionmaking process. We performed a quantitative analysis of research publications in palliative Care journals for their reporting of CRF. Settings and Design: Systematic review of palliative cares journals. Materials and Methods: Twelve palliative care journals were searched for articles with ‘cancer’ in title and ‘fatigue’ in title/abstract of the articles published from 2006-2010. The reporting rates of all journals were compared. The selected articles were categorized into assessment and treatment, and subsequently grouped into original and review articles. The original articles were sub-grouped into qualitative and quantitative studies, and the review articles were grouped into narrative and systematic reviews. Each subgroup in the original articles category was further classified according to study designs. Descriptive analysis using frequencies and percentiles was used. Results: The overall reporting rate among all journals was 1.04% (38/3634), and Am J Hosp Palliat Care (AJHPC) had highest reporting rate of 1.98% (9/454), followed by Palliat Med (PM) with 1.85% (10/538), and Indian J Palliative Care (IJPC) with 1.69% (1/59). Conclusions: The overall reporting rate for CRF articles in palliative care journals was very low and there were very few randomized clinical trials and systematic reviews found. The study findings indicate a lack of adequate evidence base for CRF.