Logo image
Back
Palliative Care Need and Availability in Four Referral Hospitals in Senegal: Results from a Multicomponent Assessment
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Palliative Care Need and Availability in Four Referral Hospitals in Senegal: Results from a Multicomponent Assessment

Hana Hamdi, Oumar Ba, Serigne Niang, Christian Ntizimira, Mouhadou Mbengue, Aminata Sophie Coulbary, Rokhaya Niang, Matthew Parsons, Joseph J. Amon and Diederik Lohman
Journal of pain and symptom management, v 55(4), pp 1122-1130
01 Apr 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2017.11.034
PMID: 29223401
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2017.11.034View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Restricted

Abstract

Cancer morphine needs assessment pain palliative care
With prevalence of noncommunicable diseases and life expectancy rising in Senegal, the need for palliative care is likely growing. No national palliative care needs assessments have been carried out. To assess the capacity and need for palliative care in Senegal. A multicomponent assessment of availability and demand for palliative care was conducted in two tertiary and two regional hospitals in Senegal in 2015 with approval from Senegal's National Ethics Committee for Health Research. The assessment consisted of (1) an inpatient hospital census; (2, 3) surveys of inpatients and outpatients with life-limiting illness; (4) a knowledge, attitudes, and practices survey among health care workers; and (5) a facility survey to assess availability of palliative care medications. Nearly half (44.4%) of all inpatients (n = 167) had an active life-limiting illness. Among them, 56.6% reported moderate-to-severe pain in the past three days, 2.3% of whom received morphine, and 76.7% received weak or no pain medication. Inpatients also experienced moderate-to-severe dyspnea (42.1%), fatigue (66.5%), nausea (16.5%), and drowsiness (42.1%). About 39.2% of all outpatients (n = 395) reported moderate-to-severe pain, and 52.8% reported that the treatment they had received relieved their pain only partially or not at all. Two-thirds of all doctors reported feeling comfortable prescribing pain medicines; however, 83.0% rarely or never prescribed morphine. Two of four hospitals reported no use of morphine in 2014. There is significant need for palliative care in Senegal. Training of health care workers and ensuring availability of relevant medications should be prioritized.

Metrics

8 Record Views
10 citations in Web of Science
8 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Clinical Neurology
Health Care Sciences & Services
Logo image