Network Analysis of the Multidimensional Symptom Experience of Oncology


== Abstract ==

 Oncology patients undergoing cancer treatment experience an average of fifteen unrelieved symptoms that are highly variable in both their severity and distress. Recent advances in Network Analysis (NA) provide a novel approach to gain insights into the complex nature of co-occurring symptoms and symptom clusters and identify core symptoms. We present findings from the first study that used NA to examine the relationships among 38 common symptoms in a large sample of oncology patients undergoing chemotherapy. Using two different models of Pairwise Markov Random Fields (PMRF), we examined the nature and structure of interactions for three different dimensions of patients’ symptom experience (i.e., occurrence, severity, distress). Findings from this study provide the first direct evidence that the connections between and among symptoms differ depending on the symptom dimension used to create the network. Based on an evaluation of the centrality indices, nausea appears to be a structurally important node in all three networks. Our findings can be used to guide the development of symptom management interventions based on the identification of core symptoms and symptom clusters within a network.

Document type: Article

== Full document ==
<pdf>Media:Draft_Content_979694044-beopen1359-6755-document.pdf</pdf>


== Original document ==

The different versions of the original document can be found in:

* [http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6381090 http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6381090] under the license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

* [http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/83132 http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/83132]

* [https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/67424/1/Papachristou_etal_SR_2018_Network_analysis_of_the_multidimensional_symptom_experience_of_oncology.pdf https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/67424/1/Papachristou_etal_SR_2018_Network_analysis_of_the_multidimensional_symptom_experience_of_oncology.pdf] under the license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

* [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-36973-1.pdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-36973-1.pdf] under the license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

* [https://zenodo.org/record/3368247 https://zenodo.org/record/3368247] under the license cc-by

* [http://link.springer.com/article/10.1038/s41598-018-36973-1 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1038/s41598-018-36973-1],
: [https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322 https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322] under the license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

* [http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-36973-1.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-36973-1.pdf],
: [http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-36973-1 http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-36973-1],
: [http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36973-1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36973-1]

* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30783135 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30783135],
: [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-36973-1.pdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-36973-1.pdf],
: [http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/849931 http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/849931],
: [https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/67424 https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/67424],
: [http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6381090 http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6381090],
: [http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-36973-1 http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-36973-1],
: [https://pureportal.strath.ac.uk/en/publications/network-analysis-of-the-multidimensional-symptom-experience-of-on-2 https://pureportal.strath.ac.uk/en/publications/network-analysis-of-the-multidimensional-symptom-experience-of-on-2],
: [https://nyuscholars.nyu.edu/en/publications/network-analysis-of-the-multidimensional-symptom-experience-of-on https://nyuscholars.nyu.edu/en/publications/network-analysis-of-the-multidimensional-symptom-experience-of-on],
: [https://academic.microsoft.com/#/detail/2907922784 https://academic.microsoft.com/#/detail/2907922784] under the license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0