16 The development and psychometric testing of OCAS: Oral Chemotherapy Adherence Scale

Abstract

by chemotherapeutic on peripheral veins are avoided. The aim of the study is to examine the daily port use behaviours of cancer patients with implantable catheter port. Material and Methods: This study was conducted in Dokuz Eylul University Research and Application Hospital. The example of the study consists of 107 patient who meet the criteria and picked randomly. The criteria was being over the age of 18, being able to speak Turkish, having oncologic or hematologic malignancy, having good cognitive functions, being willing to participate in the study and having implantable catheter port. No financial aid was taken from any organization. The necessary permissions were given by chief physician and ethics committee. In order to gather data, two forms were created according to a literature review. The number and percentage distributions of the data were done statistically. Results: 57% of the participants were male, 53.3% of the participants were primary school graduates and 98.1% of the participants had oncologic cancer and had a catheter port on chest area. 86.9% of the participants were informed of catheter ports and the major source of information (75.7%) was nurses. 86% of the participants reported that they had no issues with the port, while 8.4% had developed an infection around port area and 15% had a fear that the port might be pierced. Additionally, the participants had no issues with taking part in recreational activities (87.9%), sport activities (83.2%) and social activities (89.7%) and 34.6% of the participants were satisfied with the aesthetic results of the port. 24.3% of the participants had pain around port area, 16.8% of the participants found cleaning the port boring, 9.3% of the participants had sleep disorders and 19.6% of the participants felt the port as an alien object on their bodies. 52.3% or the participants were glad to have port implantation. Conclusion: To gather information on patients’ issues, thoughts, satisfaction related to catheter ports is important in order to find solutions to port related problems and improve the adaptation to ports. No conflict of interest.