Evaluation of dignity feeling of patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy

Patients with cancer are in conditions where they may face challenges that can undermine their human dignity. Preserving the sense of dignity in incurable cancer patients is one of the important goals of palliative care. The present study aimed to determine the sense of dignity from the perspective of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy at Shahid Mustafa Khomeini hospital.
This descriptive study evaluated the perspective of 200 cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy at Shahid Mustafa Khomeini hospital regarding their sense of dignity using standardized Patient Dignity Inventory questionnaire. The data were analyzed using SPSS software version 19 and T-test, Pearson correlation, Chi-square and ANOVA tests were utilized.
The overall dignity score was 2.5 out of 5, with a standard deviation of 1.06. The dignity scores of the patients were 2.7±1.2 in the dimension of symptom disturbance, 2.4±0.98 in the dimension of anxiety and uncertainty, 2.4±0.95 in the dimension of loss of autonomy, and 2.9±1.5 in the dimension of loss of sense of worth. The sense of dignity did not have a significant correlation with age, marital status, having children and time of cancer diagnosis. However, it had significant correlations with gender (P = 0.006), satisfaction with income (P = 0.0001), education level (P = 0.0001), having religious beliefs (P = 0.0001) and the extent of cancer invasion (P = 0.0001).
The most significant concerns of the studied patients were anxiety, uncertainty and loss of autonomy. Identifying various sources of experienced stress in these patients can greatly assist the therapeutic and caregiving team in making appropriate decisions.