title: Does screening for physical and psychosocial symptoms vary between medical oncology treatment centres?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our aim is to examine whether provider screening for physical and emotional symptoms, as reported by medical oncology outpatients, varies across medical oncology treatment centres.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional sample of 716 patients attending the outpatient medical oncology department of six public cancer treatment centres across five Australian states participated. Four patient-report survey items explored how often patients were specifically asked by clinical staff at the treatment centre about their (i) emotional distress (anxiety, distress and depression), (ii) pain, (iii) fatigue and (iv) other physical symptoms (e.g. nausea and constipation). Asking at less than half of all appointments was classified as infrequent screening.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No significant associations were found between treatment centre and symptom screening for emotional distress (p = 0.65), pain (p = 0.21), fatigue (p = 0.95) and other physical symptoms (p = 0.40). The proportion of patients who were regularly screened versus infrequently screened was significantly higher for physical symptoms than emotional symptoms (p < 0.001): 36% infrequently screened for emotional distress (range: 33-45%), 15% infrequently screened for pain (range: 9-21%), 16% infrequently screened for fatigue (range: 15-19%) and 11% infrequently screened for other physical symptoms (range: 5-17%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  No significant variation in symptom screening was found across treatment centres. While the majority of patients received recommended care, treatment centres must continue to improve symptom screening rates, particularly for emotional distress. However, screening is only the first step and must be accompanied by the offer of help and provision of help to relieve patient suffering.
authors.affiliation: Health Behaviour Research Group, Priority Research Centre for Health Behaviour, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia.|Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zucca
authors.affiliation: Health Behaviour Research Group, Priority Research Centre for Health Behaviour, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia.|Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sanson-Fisher
authors.affiliation: Health Behaviour Research Group, Priority Research Centre for Health Behaviour, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia.|Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Waller
authors.affiliation: Health Behaviour Research Group, Priority Research Centre for Health Behaviour, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia.|Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Mariko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carey
authors.affiliation: Health Behaviour Research Group, Priority Research Centre for Health Behaviour, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia.|Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Allison W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Boyes
authors.affiliation: Cancer Services and Cancer Network, Hunter New England Local Health District, New Lambton Heights, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Proietto
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D001315:Australia; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005221:Fatigue / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008495:Medical Oncology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009325:Nausea; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D016522:Oncology Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010045:Outpatients / Q000523:psychology*; D010146:Pain / Q000150:complications; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult