Comparison of the sociodemographic and clinical profiles of cancer patients admitted to a tertiary palliative care unit before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Table 2 Nutritional characteristics of patients with advanced cancer in palliative care per evaluation period (before or during the COVID-19 pandemic); n = 673

Variables	Total n (%)	COVID-19 Pandemic		p-value
Variables	Total n (%)	Before n = 204 (30.3%)	During n = 469 (697%)	p-value
PG-SGA SF (score)^a	12.3 (6.3)	11.1 (6.0)	12.9 (6.3)	< 0.001
PG-SGA SF (score ≥ 9)^b
No	212 (31.5%)	73 (36.0%)	139 (29.6%)	0.102
Yes	461 (68.5%)	130 (64.0%)	331 (70.4%)
Symptoms
Hyporexia (Yes)^b	350 (52.0%)	90 (44.3%)	260 (55.3%)	0.009
Nausea (Yes)^b	256 (38.0%)	64 (31.5%)	192 (40.8%)	0.022
Vomiting (Yes)^b	182 (27.0%)	43 (21.2%)	139 (29.6%)	0.024
Fatigue (Yes)^b	204 (30.3%)	59 (29.1%)	145 (30.8%)	0.643
Pain (Yes)^b	244 (36.3%)	69 (34.0%)	175 (37.2%)	0.422
Mood-related: depression, anxiety, or sadness (Yes)^b	112 (16.6%)	31 (15.3%)	81 (17.2%)	0.530

Note: n = number of observations; % = frequency; PG-SGA SF = Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment Short Form
^aMean/standard deviation/Student’s t-test
^bNumber of observations/frequency/Pearson’s chi-squared test

ISSN: 1472-684X