ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces and operationalizes the measurement of patients’ unmet need for community support services as an indicator of patients’ quality of life. It presents data on the prevalence of cancer patients’ need and unmet need for support services, the correlates of need and unmet need and the incidence of changes over a 6-month period among patients with advanced cancer. Unmet need is conceptualized as a function of both the physiological effects of disease and treatment and the associated support pressures. Health status measures included in the interview were self-reported symptoms, recent hospitalizations, restricted activity days, bed days, and the Spitzer Quality of Life Index. Unmet need was partially related to patients’ physical status. The more needs a patient reported in a given area, the more likely at least one of those would be unmet. Unmet need was particularly related to social support.
