The effect of malnutrition on fatigue and quality of life in palliative care patients

The study was conducted to examine the effects of malnutrition on fatigue and quality of life in palliative care patients. The study consisted of 308 patients who were treated in palliative care units and met the inclusion criteria. Data were collected using the "Personal Information Form", "Quality of Life Scale Short Form (SF-36)" and "Fatigue Severity Scale". Data were evaluated using SPSS 26.0 program, using percentages, means, Mann Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis test and Spearson correlation test. 51.9% of the patients were male with an average age of 73.63±10.28. 93.2% of the patients had a cancer diagnosis and 2.9% had previously been admitted to palliative care. 100% of the patients were admitted to palliative care due to malnutrition, 70.5% due to fatigue and 63.3% due to weight loss. 86.7% of the patients had an NRS 2002 score above 3 points, and 41.6% were fed with a nasogastric tube. The mean fatigue severity level of the patients was 45.33±5.26; the lowest score from the sub-dimensions of the quality of life scale was taken from the physical role (5.76±12.65), the highest score from the social function (43.38±21.67); the physical health dimension was 22.30±6.96, the mental dimension was 37.90±9.05, and the total quality of life score was 30.10±5.60. It was determined that the number of previous hospitalizations of the patients affected the fatigue level. It was determined that the patients' marital status, number of children, economic status, number of previous hospitalizations, smoking status, place of palliative care and nutrition style affected the quality of life. It was determined that there was a relationship between the fatigue severity and quality of life scores in the patients.