Health care needs of elderly patients with lung, liver, or colon cancer in Taiwan

BMC Palliative Care

Table 2 Analysis for Total Supportive Care Needs

Variable	Mean ± SD	p
Sex		0.06
Female	82.6 ± 21.6
Male	77.5 ± 19.4
Age		0.04*
65–74	77.9 ± 19.8
75–84	81.0 ± 20.4
≥ 85	91.3 ± 24.3
Residential area		0.34
Northern	79.9 ± 19.4
Central	76.6 ± 16.0
Southern	82.2 ± 22.6
Eastern and Islands	76.9 ± 22.7
Education		0.03*
No formal education	87.3 ± 24.8
Primary school	77.2 ± 19.4
Junior high school or above	79.2 ± 19.1
Marital status		0.39
Unmarried	81.4 ± 19.4
Married	78.9 ± 21.0
Chronic diseases		0.33
No	77.8 ± 20.4
Yes	80.6 ± 20.6
Karnofsky performance status	79.7 ± 20.5	0.00**
Primary cancer site		0.01*
Liver or intrahepatic bile duct	86.6 ± 22.3
Lung, bronchus, or trachea	76.2 ± 19.3
Colon, rectum, or anus	77.7 ± 19.3
Cancer stage		0.94
Unknown	79.9 ± 19.2
0–II	79.6 ± 23.6
III	78.2 ± 21.3
IV	80.7 ± 19.0
Treatment
Surgery (Yes vs. No)	84.2 ± 21.9	0.11
Chemotherapy (Yes vs. No)	80.0 ± 21.1	0.49
Radiotherapy (Yes vs. No)	91.6 ± 23.0	0.00**
Other (Yes vs. No)	79.7 ± 19.1	0.99

Independent t-test and one-way ANOVA for categorical variables; Pearson correlation for continuous variables; *P < 0.05; **P < 0.001

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