Aims
Ovarian Cancer Australia established a telehealth program (Teal Support) to provide care and support to affected women. The Program is being evaluated to assess its impact on women’s health outcomes. This report describes symptom burden and supportive care needs of women who attended the Program and subsequently consented to the evaluation study.
Methods
Using a single prospective cohort design, women completed surveys assessing symptom burden (MOST v2), psychological distress (GHQ-12), and supportive care needs (SCNS-SF34) at different time points over 12 months.
Results
112 of 421 women in the Program were referred to the evaluation and 86 consented between August 2020 and October 2021. At baseline, 46% of participants were aged <60 years, 33% were undergoing initial treatment, and 32% were dealing with recurrence. The most frequently reported symptoms that caused moderate or severe problems were fatigue (68%), anxiety (52%), trouble sleeping (52%), numbness/tingling (47%), sore hands and feet (40%), depression (35%) and abdominal pain (35%). 41% reported high level distress and more than one third had moderate or high unmet needs for psychological needs (e.g., uncertainty about future, fears about cancer spreading, learning to feel in control of the situation, anxiety, worry about the results of treatment being beyond their control), and physical needs (e.g., lack of energy). Women aged <60 years reported significantly more severe problems related to disease or treatment-related symptoms (p<0.05) and higher levels of sexuality need (p<0.01) than those who aged ≥60 years. Women living in major cities reported a significantly higher level of distress (p=0.02) than those living in the non-metropolitan areas.
Conclusions
Results indicate that women accessing the Program have high levels of supportive care needs and are at high risk of poorer outcomes. Programs focused on addressing the unique needs of this population address an important gap in health service delivery.