Effects of psychological flexibility intervention on symptoms and self-management efficacy of patients after hepatic arterial infusion chemoembolization

Abstract

Objective To explore the effects of psychological flexibility intervention on the symptoms and self-management efficacy of patients after hepatic arterial infusion chemoembolization. Methods By convenient sampling, a total of 90 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who had undergone hepatic arterial transcatheter chemoembolization in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from January to February 2018 were selected. By random number table method, they were divided into the observation group and the control group, with 45 participants in each group. The control group received routine nursing intervention, and the observation group received psychological flexibility intervention, both for 2 weeks. Before and after the intervention, the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (MSAS) and the Chinese version of the Strategies Used People to Promote Health (SUPPH) were used to assess the symptomatic distress and self-management efficacy of the two groups in order to evaluate the effects of the intervention. Results There were no significant statistical differences in the average scores of physical symptoms, psychological symptoms, distressed index, and main clauses of MSAS before intervention between the two groups (P>0.05) . After intervention, the physical symptoms of the patients in both groups had no statistical difference compared with those pre-intervention (P>0.05) , while the average scores of psychological symptoms, distress index, main clauses of MSAS were all lower than those pre-intervention with statistical significance (P 0.05) . After intervention, the total score of SUPPH and the scores from each dimension increased with statistical significance (P 0.05) . The total score of SUPPH and the scores from each dimension were all higher than the control group with statistical significance (P<0.01) . Conclusions The psychological flexibility intervention can effectively reduce the patients' psychological distress after chemoembolization, and promote their self-management efficiency, therefore is worth promoting in the clinical practice. Key words: Liver neoplasms; Psychological flexibility; Hepatic arterial infusion chemoembolization; Symptomatic distress; Self-management efficacy