Estado nutricional e sua associação com o perfil sintomatológico de pacientes em cuidados paliativos internados em um hospital de urgências do nordeste brasileiro

Palliative care are provided to patients with irreversible diseases, due to the therapeutic impossibility of cure. Palliative treatment is intended to alleviate the symptoms that affectthese individuals, portraying death as something natural and acceptable. Therefore, since there arefew studies addressing this theme, the present article aimed to assess the symptoms of patients inpalliative care in an emergency hospital in northeastern Brazil and its association with nutritionalstatus. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was carried out with a convenience sampleof 52 individuals diagnosed with palliative care admitted to the Sergipe Emergency Hospital, fromAugust to September 2018, the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale questionnaires were appliedfor evaluation of symptoms, and the Subjective Global Assessment Produced by the Patient, forthe nutritional diagnosis. Results: The sample consisted of 52 individuals with an average ageof 59.62 ± 15.51 years, most of the individuals were male (53.85%), had neoplasms and about41.86% were moderately malnourished. Among the symptoms evaluated, the most frequentwere: I don’t look like myself anymore (78.85%), weight loss (73.07%), pain (69.23%), sadness(65.38%), mouth drought (57.69%), lack of energy (55.76%). A statistically significant associationwas observed between physical symptoms and the general scale with the patients’ nutritionalstatus (p <0.05). Conclusion: Given the above, it was possible to conclude that the progressionof terminal illness involves physical, psychological, spiritual and social symptoms, which resultfrom the progression of the primary disease, as well as its treatment and comorbidities, with adirect association with nutritional status.