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According to US researchers, people with advanced cancer who respond to electronic surveys are in better shape.
Communicating your symptoms digitally would have a huge impact on your health. This is at least what emerges from a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Chicago).
90% of patients responded to the telephone survey
To better understand the effects of electronic tracking, 1191 participants were recruited into the PRO-TECT trial.
About half (593) had to complete a weekly internet or automated telephone system survey (Common Symptoms Questionnaire) and the other half had to wait for an upcoming clinic visit to report any symptoms.
The most common recorded were: fatigue, nausea, insomnia, loss of appetite, diarrhea, pain, difficulty breathing and constipation. If these symptoms worsened, alerts were automatically sent to nurses.
Results ? Patients, very committed, completed “90%” of these surveys. Ditto, on the side of the nurses who frequently contacted the patients during worrying signs.
In addition, about a third of isolated participants in the campaign preferred to report their symptoms via this automated telephone system rather than on the Internet.
“This likely reflects how accustomed many patients and providers have become to telehealth and electronic communications.“, reveals Ethan Basch of UNC Lineberger, lead author of the article.
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Electronic system identifies symptoms earlier
Better follow-up which has a positive impact on the quality of life of patients: patients who reported their symptoms on the Internet thus revealed that they had better physical shape (35%), better control of their symptoms (16.1%) and better quality overall life (41%).
“PRO-TECT is a way to bring patients and caregivers together while helping them quickly identify those at risk. Furthermore, in view of the success (…) in 25 states, it shows that there is wide acceptance for this type of intervention“, concludes Ethan Basch.
As a reminder, more than half of cancer symptoms are neither detected nor reported – while early treatment greatly improves the chances of survival.