Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T11:10:09.791Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How older people with incurable cancer experience daily living: A qualitative study from Norway

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2014

Sigrid Helene Kjørven Haug ,
Lars J. Danbolt ,
Kari Kvigne  and
Valerie Demarinis
Sigrid Helene Kjørven Haug*
Affiliation:
Center for Psychology of Religion, Innlandet Hospital Trust, and The Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo, Norway
Lars J. Danbolt
Affiliation:
Centre for Psychology of Religion, Innlandet Hospital Trust, and The Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo, Norway
Kari Kvigne
Affiliation:
Hedmark University College, Department of Public Health, Institute of Nursing and Mental Health, Elverum, Norway, and Nesna University College, Institute for Nursing Education, Nordland, Norway
Valerie Demarinis
Affiliation:
Centre for Psychology of Religion, Innlandet Hospital Trust, and The Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo, Norway IMPACT Research Program, Public Mental Health Promotion Area, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Sigrid Helene Kjørven Haug, Innlandet Hospital Trust, Centre for Psychology of Religion, P.B. 68, 2312, Ottestad, Norway. E-mail: sigrid.helene.kjorven.haug@sykehuset-innlandet.no
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objective:

An increasing number of older people are living with incurable cancer as a chronic disease, requiring palliative care from specialized healthcare for shorter or longer periods of time. The aim of our study was to describe how they experience daily living while receiving palliative care in specialized healthcare contexts.

Method:

We conducted a qualitative research study with a phenomenological approach called “systematic text condensation.” A total of 21 participants, 12 men and 9 women, aged 70–88, took part in semistructured interviews. They were recruited from two somatic hospitals in southeastern Norway.

Results:

The participants experienced a strong link to life in terms of four subthemes: to acknowledge the need for close relationships; to maintain activities of normal daily life; to provide space for existential meaning-making and to name and handle decline and loss. In addition, they reported that specialized healthcare contexts strengthened the link to life by prioritizing and providing person-centered palliative care.

Significance of results:

Older people with incurable cancer are still strongly connected to life in their daily living. The knowledge that the potential for resilience remains despite aging and serious decline in health is considered a source of comfort for older people living with this disease. Insights into the processes of existential meaning-making and resilience are seen as useful in order to increase our understanding of how older people adapt to adversity, and how their responses may help to protect them from some of the difficulties inherent to aging. Healthcare professionals can make use of this information in treatment planning and for identification of psychosocial and sociocultural resources to support older people and to strengthen patients' life resources.

Keywords

CancerPalliative careAgingPhenomenologyExperience
Type
Original Articles
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , August 2015 , pp. 1037 - 1048
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Allen, R.S., Haley, P.P., Harris, G.M., et al. (2011). Resilience: Definitions, ambiguities, and applications. In Resilience in aging: Concepts, research, and outcomes. Resnick, B. et al. (eds.), pp. 1–13. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Andersson, M., Hallberg, I.R. & Edberg, A.K. (2008). Old people receiving municipal care, their experiences of what constitutes a good life in the last phase of life: A qualitative study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 45(6), 818–828.Google Scholar
Baltes, P.B., Lindenberger, U. & Staudinger, U.M. (2006). Life span theory in developmental psychology. In Handbook of child psychology. Damon, W. & Lerner, R. (eds.), 6th ed. Vol. 1: Theoretical models of human development, pp. 569–595. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Benzein, E., Nordberg, A. & Saveman, B.I. (2001). The meaning of lived experience of hope in patients with cancer in palliative home care. Palliative Medicine, 15(2), 117–126.Google Scholar
Cancer Registry of Norway (2014). Cancer in Norway, 2012. Available from http://www.kreftregisteret.no//no/generelt/publikasjoner/Cancer-in-Norway2012.Google Scholar
Clark, P.G., Burbank, P.M., Greene, G., et al. (2011). What do we know about resilience in older adults? An Exploration of some facts, factors, and facets. In Resilience in aging: Concepts, research and outcomes. Resnick, B. et al. (eds.), pp. 51–66. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
DeMarinis, V. (2008). The impact of post-modernization on existential health in Sweden: Psychology of religion's function in existential public health analysis. Archive for the Psychology of Religion, 30, 57–74.Google Scholar
DeMarinis, V., Ulland, D. & Karlsen, K.E. (2011). Philosophy's role for guiding theory and practice in clinical contexts grounded in a cultural psychiatry focus: A case study illustration from southern Norway. World Cultural Psychiatry Research Review, 6(1), 47–56.Google Scholar
Devik, S.A., Enmarker, I., Wiik, G.B., et al. (2013). Meanings of being old, living on one's own and suffering from incurable cancer in rural Norway. European Journal of Oncology Nursing, 17, 781–787.Google Scholar
Edwards, A., Pang, P., Shiu, V., et al. (2010). Review: The understanding of spirituality and the potential role of spiritual care in end-of-life and palliative care: A meta-study of qualitative research. Palliative Medicine, 24, 753–770.Google Scholar
Evers, M.M., Meier, D.E. & Morrison, R.S. (2002). Assessing differences in care needs and service utilization in geriatric palliative care patients. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 23(5), 424–432.Google Scholar
Giorgi, A. (1985). Phenomenology and psychological research: Essays. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.Google Scholar
Giorgi, A. (2009). The descriptive phenomenological method in psychology: A modified Husserlian approach. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.Google Scholar
Goldstein, M.E. & Morrison, S. (2005). The intersection between geriatrics and palliative care: A call for a new research agenda. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 53(9), 1593–1598.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, S., Petkova, H., Tsouros, A.D., et al. (eds.) (2011). Palliative care for older people: Better practices. Copenhagen: WHO. Available from http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/143153/e95052.pdf.Google Scholar
Hammond, C., Teucher, U., Duggleby, W., et al. (2012). An “unholy alliance” of existential proportions: Negotiating discourses with men's experiences of cancer and aging. Journal of Aging Studies, 26, 149–161.Google Scholar
Haugen, D.F., Jordhøy, M.S., Engstrand, P., et al. (2006). Organisering av palliasjon i og utenfor sykehus [Organizing inpatient and outpatient palliative care] [in Norwegian]. Tidsskrift for den Norske Legeforening, 126, 329–332.Google Scholar
Josephson, A.M. & Peteet, J.R. (2004). Worldview in diagnosis and case formulation. In Handbook of spirituality and worldview in clinical practice. Josephson, A.M. & Peteet, J.R. (eds.), pp. 31–45. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.Google Scholar
La Cour, K., Josephsson, S. & Luborsky, M. (2005). Creating connections to life during life-threatening illness: Creative activity experienced by elderly people and occupational therapists. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 12(3), 98–109.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lindqvist, O., Widmark, A. & Rasmussen, B.H. (2006). Reclaiming wellness: Living with bodily problems, as narrated by men with advanced prostate cancer. Cancer Nursing, 29(4), 327–337.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maher, K. & de Vries, K. (2011). An exploration of the lived experiences of individuals with relapsed multiple myeloma. European Journal of Cancer Care, 20, 267–275.Google Scholar
Malterud, K. (2012). Systematic text condensation: A strategy for qualitative analysis. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 40(8), 795–805.Google Scholar
McTiernan, K. & O'Connell, M. (2014). An interpretative phenomenological analysis exploring the lived experience of individuals dying from terminal cancer in Ireland. Palliative & Supportive Care, 8, 1–11. Epub ahead of print.Google Scholar
Mundal, A. & Thonstad, M. (2013). Statistics Norway: Seks av ti eldre i kontakt med sykehus. In Eldres bruk av helse og omsorgsstjenester. Ramm, J. (ed.), pp. 77–83. Oslo: Statistics Norway. Available from http://ssb.no/helse/artikler-og-publikasjoner/_attachment/125965?_ts=13f8b5b6898.Google Scholar
Nakashima, M. & Canda, E.R. (2005). Positive dying and resiliency in later life: A Qualitative study. Journal of Aging Studies, 19(1), 109–125.Google Scholar
Norwegian Directorate of Health (2013). Nasjonalt handlingsprogram med retningslinjer for palliasjon i kreftomsorgen [National action program with guidelines for palliative care for patients with cancer]. Available from http://www.helsedirektoratet.no/publikasjoner/nasjonalt-handlingsprogram-med-retningslinjer-for-palliasjon-i-kreftomsorgen-/Publikasjoner/nasjonalt-handlingsprogram-for-palliasjon-i-kreftomsorgen.pdf.Google Scholar
Pentz, M. (2008). Resilience among older adults with cancer and the importance of social support and spirituality-faith. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 44(3–4), 3–22.Google Scholar
Sand, L., Olsson, M. & Strang, P. (2009). Coping strategies in the presence of one's own impending death from cancer. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 37(1), 13–22.Google Scholar
Strømskag, K.E. (2012). Og nå skal jeg dø: Hospicebevegelsen og palliasjonens historie i Norge [The history of the hospice movement and of palliative care in Norway]. Oslo: Pax Forlag A/S.Google Scholar
Svidén, G.A., Tham, K. & Borell, L. (2010). Involvement in everyday life for people with a life-threatening illness. Palliative & Supportive Care, 8(3), 345–352.Google Scholar
Sæteren, B., Lindström, U.Å. & Nåden, D. (2010). Latching onto life: Living in the area of tension between the possibility of life and the necessity of death. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 20(5–6), 811–818.Google Scholar
Ulland, D. & DeMarinis, V. (2014). Understanding and working with existential information in a Norwegian adolescent psychiatry context: A need and a challenge. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 17(6), 582–593.Google Scholar
Whitford, H.S., Olver, I.N. & Petersson, M.J. (2008). Spirituality as a core domain in the assessment of quality of life in oncology. Psycho-Oncology, 17, 1121–1128.Google Scholar
WHO (2014). WHO definition of palliative care. Available from http://www.who.int/cancer/palliative/definition/en/.Google Scholar