title: Do elderly cancer patients have different care needs compared with younger ones?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The increasingly older population confronts oncologists with an imposing challenge: older cancer patients have specific healthcare needs both independent of and associated with the diagnosis of cancer. The aim of the present study is to examine whether elderly versus younger cancer patients have different needs with respect to attendance, treatment and information.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is an observational and cross-sectional study. Cancer patients aged 35 to 82 years were consecutively interviewed. The group was divided into two subgroups aged ≤65 and ≥66 years old. The Needs Evaluation Questionnaire (NEQ) was used to assess patients' needs and demographic variables were collected. Data analysis was carried out by means of cross-tabulation analyses and the chi-square test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The requests most frequently expressed by the older group concerned financial-insurance information (73.9%), the need to talk to people with the same illness (71.7%), the need to receive more comprehensible information from doctors and nurses (71.7%), and the need for a better dialogue with clinicians (69.6%). Few significant differences between the two age subgroups were found, with the exception of issues such as the need for intimacy and support.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Elderly patients have informational and relational needs similar to those of younger patients. In fact, most of the whole sample flagged up the need for higher levels of satisfaction especially concerning a better dialogue with health staff, along with a new factor: the need to talk to people with the same illness.
authors.affiliation: Experimental Unit of Psychological Oncology, Department of Critical Area and Surgery, National Cancer Institute Giovanni Paolo II, Bari, Italy. francescaromito@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Romito
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Corvasce
authors.forename: Rosanna
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Montanaro
authors.forename: Vittorio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mattioli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage; D007348:Insurance, Health; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires