Examination of dietary hapits of palliative care patients admitted to the emergency department

We aimed to evaluate the factors affecting the nutritional habits of palliative care patientsand to develop the habit of proper nutrition with suggestions in order to reveal and prevent existing problems, and thus to increase the quality of life of these patients who applied to the emergency department. The sample of this descriptive and cross-sectional study consists of 150 palliative care patients who applied to Tokat Gaziosmanpaşa University Hospital Emergency Service. The data were collected using a questionnaire that included socio-demographic characteristics and nutritional self-efficacy, Beck Depression Questionnaire and Barf Nausea Questionnaire. Mean ± standard deviation, percentage distributions, t-test and Anova test were used in the evaluation of the data, p <0.005 was considered as significant. A total of 150 palliative care patients participated in the study. While 70 (46.7%) of the palliative care patients participating in the study were female, 80 (53.3%) of them were male. In our study, the mean age of palliative care patients was found to be 60.17 ± 11.58. 106 of the patients (70.7) show severe depressive symptoms. While 75 (50%) of the patients had low nutritional self-efficacy, 75 (50%) of them were found to have high nutritional self-efficacy. 29 (19.3%) of the participants who participated in the nausea questionnaire describedsevere nausea and 42 (28.0%) of them responded that they had vomiting. When we examined the relationship between scale scores, it was found that there was a positive weak relationship of r = 0.405 between BDI and BARF. When we examined the relationship between scale scores, it was calculated that there was a negative weak relationshipof r = -0.352 between MDF and BARF. While there was no significant difference between the total scores of the BDI and the IMQ scales according to the monthly income of palliative care patients who came to the emergency department, a significant difference was found between the BARF scale (F = 8,878) (p = 0.001).When the total scores of the participants with palliative care follow-up and those without palliative care follow-up were compared, a statistically significant difference was found (t = 2.049) (p = 0.046). Conclusion: Recently, increasing depressive symptoms affect the nutrition of the patient negatively and psychological support is required to overcome this problem. Enteral nutrition is recommended to maintain or improve nutritional status in patients who lose weight after malnutrition. Healthcare professionals working in emergency services should be concerned with the quality of life of patients and provide them with emotional and psychosocial support.