Table 5.
Factors associated with agreement across all pairs of symptom observations (N = 21263)a
| Factors possibly affecting agreement | Health care provider underestimation |
Good agreement |
Health care provider overestimation |
Chi-square | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |||
| Age | ≤ 60 | 1013 | 10.9 | 8122 | 87.7 | 126 | 1.4 | 0.629 |
| > 60 | 1268 | 10.7 | 10410 | 88.0 | 146 | 1.2 | ||
| Body Mass Index | < 25 | 1378 | 10.3 | 11855 | 88.5 | 169 | 1.3 | 0.583 |
| ≥ 25 | 693 | 9.8 | 6274 | 88.9 | 89 | 1.3 | ||
| KPSb | < 80 | 1808 | 11.1 | 14110 | 86.8 | 347 | 2.1 | 0.032 |
| ≥ 80 | 474 | 9.9 | 4240 | 88.2 | 94 | 2.0 | ||
|
Mini Mental State, total score |
≤ 23 | 265 | 9.5 | 2455 | 87.6 | 81 | 2.9 | < 0.001 |
| > 23 | 1927 | 11.3 | 14806 | 86.7 | 340 | 2.0 | ||
|
Time since diagnosis (months) |
≤ 3 | 550 | 12.5 | 3797 | 86.5 | 43 | 1.0 | < 0.001 |
| > 3 | 1420 | 9.6 | 13162 | 89.0 | 204 | 1.4 | ||
| Gender | Female | 1122 | 11.1 | 8812 | 87.5 | 136 | 1.4 | 0.261 |
| Male | 1161 | 10.5 | 9727 | 88.2 | 136 | 1.2 | ||
| Department | Hospitalized patients | 1992 | 12.1 | 14314 | 86.7 | 201 | 1.2 | < 0.001 |
| Out-patients | 291 | 6.3 | 4225 | 92.1 | 71 | 1.5 | ||
|
Status of opioid treatment |
Recently initiated | 593 | 15.4 | 3219 | 83.5 | 43 | 1.1 | < 0.001 |
| Stable dosing | 1679 | 9.8 | 15159 | 88.6 | 228 | 1.3 | ||
|
Previous or ongoing abuse alcohol |
Yes | 113 | 9.8 | 1017 | 88.5 | 19 | 1.7 | 0.304 |
| No | 2161 | 10.9 | 17477 | 87.9 | 252 | 1.3 | ||
|
Previous or ongoing abuse drugs |
Yes | 19 | 9.2 | 180 | 87.4 | 7 | 3.4 | 0.024 |
| No | 2250 | 10.8 | 18283 | 87.9 | 267 | 1.3 | ||
|
Chemotherapy the past 24 hours |
Yes | 331 | 10.4 | 2833 | 88.6 | 32 | 1.0 | 0.180 |
| No | 1952 | 10.9 | 15706 | 87.8 | 240 | 1.3 | ||
|
Profession of health care providerc |
Physician | 859 | 10.6 | 6970 | 86.2 | 261 | 3.2 | < 0.001 |
| Nurse | 1090 | 10.0 | 9573 | 88.1 | 208 | 1.9 | ||
| Metastases | None | 406 | 11.2 | 3176 | 87.7 | 39 | 1.1 | 0.430 |
| One or more | 1917 | 11.0 | 15352 | 87.7 | 233 | 1.3 | ||
| Cancer diagnosis | Breast | 292 | 10.0 | 2609 | 89.0 | 31 | 1.1 | < 0.001 |
| Female reproductive organs | 183 | 11.5 | 1383 | 87.2 | 20 | 1.3 | ||
| Gastrointestinal | 455 | 9.4 | 4306 | 89.4 | 58 | 1.2 | ||
| Haematological | 142 | 11.5 | 1077 | 87.3 | 14 | 1.1 | ||
| Head and neck | 148 | 12.8 | 983 | 85.3 | 21 | 1.8 | ||
| Lung | 481 | 12.8 | 3241 | 86.0 | 46 | 1.2 | ||
| Other | 198 | 10.8 | 1607 | 87.6 | 29 | 1.6 | ||
| Prostate | 237 | 9.4 | 2233 | 89.0 | 40 | 1.6 | ||
| Unknown origin | 53 | 9.6 | 491 | 89.3 | 6 | 1.1 | ||
| Urological | 171 | 11.4 | 1317 | 87.5 | 18 | 1.2 | ||
| Country | Denmark | 3 | 0.9 | 304 | 95.3 | 11 | 3.5 | < 0.001 |
| Finland | 25 | 7.7 | 295 | 90.8 | 5 | 1.5 | ||
| Germany | 662 | 22.4 | 2231 | 75.5 | 61 | 2.1 | ||
| Greece | 5 | 9.3 | 48 | 88.9 | 1 | 1.9 | ||
| Iceland | 105 | 6.6 | 1437 | 90.3 | 49 | 3.1 | ||
| Italy | 137 | 3.1 | 4196 | 96.1 | 34 | 0.8 | ||
| Lithuania | 44 | 7.5 | 533 | 90.5 | 12 | 2.0 | ||
| Norway | 546 | 10.5 | 4578 | 88.4 | 54 | 1.0 | ||
| Sweden | 182 | 14.0 | 1107 | 85.3 | 9 | 0.7 | ||
| Switzerland | 281 | 22.8 | 937 | 76.1 | 13 | 1.1 | ||
| United Kingdom | 293 | 9.2 | 2874 | 89.8 | 33 | 1.0 | ||
aNumber of paired symptom observations. Across one pair of raters and 11 questions for 1933 patients (1 × 11 × 1933 = 21263) (varies due to missing data).
bKarnofsky performance status
cFor 204 patients, the profession of the health care provider was not reported.