Impact of “four-step” death education on life quality and negative emotions in advanced esophageal cancer patients and families

Table 1 Baseline data of patients and caregivers, mean ± SD/n (%)

Index	SC group (n = 127)	FDE group (n = 108)	t/χ2	P value
Age	58.73 ± 6.83	59.41 ± 6.78	0.770	0.442
Gender			0.183	0.669
Female	31 (24.41)	29 (26.85)
Male	96 (75.59)	79 (73.15)
BMI	22.36 ± 1.84	22.19 ± 1.68	0.707	0.480
Marital status(married)	109 (85.83)	100 (92.59)	2.715	0.099
Smoking history	38 (29.92)	33 (30.56)	0.011	0.916
Alcohol consumption history	91 (71.65)	77 (71.30)	0.004	0.952
Education level			0.374	0.830
Elementary school or below	35 (27.56)	26 (24.07)
Junior high school/high school	59 (46.46)	53 (49.07)
University or above	33 (25.98)	29 (26.85)
Nutritional status			0.004	0.998
Grade A	19 (14.96)	16 (14.81)
Grade B	96 (75.59)	82 (75.93)
Grade C	12 (9.45)	10 (9.26)
Serum albumin	30.51 ± 3.37	31.08 ± 3.44	1.285	0.200
Hypertension	21 (16.54)	15 (13.89)	0.315	0.575
Diabetes	12 (9.45)	10 (9.26)	0.002	0.960
Family history	43 (33.86)	36 (33.33)	0.007	0.932
Duration of illness (months)	3.16 ± 0.65	3.23 ± 0.69	0.768	0.443
Primary tumor location			0.038	0.981
Esophagus/gastroesophageal junction (I, II)	101 (79.53)	85 (78.70)
Gastroesophageal junction III/cardia	14 (11.02)	12 (11.11)
Gastric/sub-cardia/stomach	12 (9.45)	11 (10.19)
ECOG status			0.002	0.962
1	78 (61.42)	66 (61.11)
2	49 (38.58)	42 (38.89)
Disease stage			0.001	0.970
III	92 (72.44)	78 (72.22)
IV	35 (27.56)	30 (27.78)
Surgical objectives			0.315	0.575
Curative surgery	38 (29.92)	36 (33.33)
Palliative surgery	89 (70.08)	72 (66.67)
Types of surgery			0.203	0.904
Minimally invasive	53 (41.73)	46 (42.59)
Open surgery	26 (20.47)	24 (22.22)
Hybrid minimally invasive	48 (37.80)	38 (35.19)
Blood loss (mL)	322.81 ± 98.47	325.26 ± 101.68	0.187	0.852
Resection margins (< 1 mm)			0.042	0.979
Free (R0)	72 (56.69)	61 (56.48)
Involved (R1)	46 (36.22)	40 (37.04)
R2	9 (7.09)	7 (6.48)
Postoperative complications
Anastomotic leak	7 (5.51)	5 (4.63)	0.094	0.759
Pulmonary infection	10 (7.87)	7 (6.48)	0.169	0.681
Recurrent laryngeal nerve injury	4 (3.15)	3 (2.78)	0	1.000
Surgical duration (minutes)	214.63 ± 41.36	211.43 ± 37.72	0.614	0.540
Length of hospital stay (days)	14.28 ± 2.83	13.96 ± 3.12	0.833	0.406
Family member information
Age	43.25 ± 8.14	42.72 ± 8.26	0.496	0.620
Gender			0.060	0.806
Female	97 (76.38)	81 (75.00)
Male	30 (23.62)	27 (25.00)
Relationship to patient			0.071	0.790
Spouse/partner	79 (62.20)	69 (63.89)
Child	48 (37.80)	39 (36.11)
Employment status			0.618	0.734
Employed	50 (39.37)	48 (44.44)
Retired	41 (32.28)	32 (29.63)
Unemployed	36 (28.35)	28 (25.93)

BMI: Body mass index; ECOG: Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group; SC: Standard care; FDE: Four-step death education.