Paliatívna medicína a liečba bolesti 1-2e/2018

Oncology patient`s social difficulties – the application of the standardized questionnaire SDI-21 in clinical practice

The paper reflects opportunities (and limits) of the application of the standardized questionnaire SDI-21 (Social Difficulties Inventory) in clinical practice. The SDI-21 questionnaire, used for screening monitoring of patients’ social difficulties, was translated into the Czech language, modified for the needs of patients with an oncological disease and distributed to the total of 40 respondents within a pilot research. Subsequently, the questionnaire was evaluated, and possible ways of its implementation into clinical practice in the Czech social-cultural environment were considered. Selected attitudes to their illness (selection of three items from the IPQ questionnaire) were also examined in oncology patients (research respondents). The research showed that personal perception of illness is highly individual in oncology patients; however, all the patients confirmed the existence of social difficulties and the need to solve them in some way. Other realized studies, analysed in the systematic review, also confirm that social problems of oncology patients are frequent, particularly serious and that the sooner an intervention is started, the more efficient the provided help can be.

Keywords: social problems, oncology patient, assessment of social problems, SDI-21, social worker