The relationship between suffering, loneliness, social interaction, and perceived symptoms in advanced cancer patients

Purpose: Understanding how different factors contribute to suffering, particularly social ones, enables designing more comprehensive and evidence-based interventions. This study examined the relationship between suffering, loneliness, social interaction, and symptom distress in patients with advanced cancer. Methodology: The authors conducted a quantitative, observational, analytical cross-sectional study. Patients with advanced cancer attending a pain and palliative care unit of an oncology institution participated. Assessment instruments included PRISM (suffering), the UCLA Loneliness Scale, the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Questionnaire, and Cohen’s Social Network Index (SNI). Univariate, bivariate, and multiple regression analyses were performed. Results: One-hundred forty-four patients participated, mostly women (68.1%), with a median age of 62 years, and 48.6% lived with a partner. About 75% reported moderate to severe suffering, 33% had clinically significant loneliness, and half reported a large social network and frequent interactions. Fatigue as the most common problem and well-being had a median score of 5. Suffering was significantly correlated with loneliness, pain, fatigue, depression, and anxiety, but not with levels of social interaction. According to the Multiple Regression Analysis, only loneliness showed a positive and significant contribution to suffering. Conclusions: A high percentage of patients show significant suffering, and almost a third show clinical levels of loneliness. This contrasts with a relatively large social network with frequent interactions and a generally low symptomatic burden. Our findings indicate that loneliness influences the experience of illness, contributing to suffering. Future studies should delve deeper into the relationship between suffering and loneliness.