Patient-reported outcomes on integrative therapies for pain, tension, and level of comfort.

Abstract

58 Background: The 2007 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) reported more than one-third of adults used some form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). An analysis of 2002 NHIS data found CAM use to be more prevalent among people with a prior diagnosis of cancer. In 1999, St. Luke’s Mountain States Tumor Institute (MSTI) began an integrative therapies program to meet this growing interest and provide evidence-based, safe CAM modalities for patients. The program continues to grow and offers programs such as massage, acupuncture, and pediatric music therapy. Methods: Patient reported outcomes are collected from patients using pre/post treatment assessments. Outpatient massage and acupuncture programs measure comfort levels pre/post treatment using a 0-10 scale (0 = very comfortable; 10 = worst discomfort). The inpatient massage program measures pre/post treatment pain and tension using a 0-10 scale (0 = no pain/tension; 10 = worst pain/tension). Finally, the MSTI pediatric music therapy program collects pre/post treatment pain outcomes using a FLACC scale, where each of the five categories Face (F), Legs (L), Activity (A), Cry (C) and Consolability (C) are scored from 0-2, which results in a total score 0-10. Results: Assessments from outpatient acupuncture and massage collected between July 1, 2011 to July 1, 2012 showed that patients had an average comfort score of 3.6 before acupuncture and 2.0 after acupuncture and an average comfort score of 3.4 before massage and 0.77 after massage (n=1300 estimate). Inpatient massage outcomes collected between Dec. 2011 – June 2012 showed an average pain score of 2.53 before massage and 0.41 after massage and an average tension score of 4.73 before massage and 0.52 after massage (n=52). MSTI pediatric music therapy outcomes collected from January-April 2012 showed an average FLACC score of 3.0 before music therapy and 0.72 after music therapy (n=68). Conclusions: Integrative therapies such as massage, acupuncture and pediatric music therapy show significant benefits in providing comfort and decreasing pain and tension in MSTI cancer patients. Opportunities remain to conduct research and set a standard of practice with integrative therapies.