The effect of text message reminders on nausea, vomiting and quality of life in children with cancer receiving cisplatin

Abstract

PurposeThis study was conducted to examine the effect of text message reminders on nausea, vomiting, and quality of life in children with cancer receiving cisplatin. MethodsThe study was conducted with a pretest-posttest unpaired group model design. The study included 80 children with cancer and their parents (40 controls and 40 experiments) aged between 8 and 18 years, who were on cisplatin treatment, who did not have cognitive disability as a clinical diagnosis, who received chemotherapy during their stay in the clinic, who were literate in Turkish and who volunteered to participate in the study. The educational contents prepared by the researchers to reduce nausea and vomiting were sent to the parents in the experimental group in the form of a text message every day for three weeks. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were used to evaluate the data. ResultsWhile NVTS, ARINVc, ARINVp, Quality of Life Scale pretest and posttest mean scores of both 8–12 and 13–18 age control group children were similar, it was determined that the experimental group's posttest mean scores were higher than the pretest mean scores, and there was a statistically significant difference between the experimental group's pretest and posttest mean scores in terms of the group, time and group*time. In this study, the education program explains 42%, 15%, 16%, 43%, and 43% of the increase in the mean scores of NVTS, ARINVc, ARINVp, Quality of Life Scale Child and Parent Form, respectively, in children aged 8–12. Also, the education program explains 10%, 27%, 28%, 38%, and 39% of the increase in the mean scores of NVTS, ARINVc, ARINVp, Quality of Life Scale Adolescent and Parent Form, respectively, in children aged 13–18. ConclusionsIt has been observed that text message reminders effectively reduce the level of nausea and vomiting and increase the quality of life. Practice implicationsThe results of this study, text message reminders can be applied as an alternative intervention method, and including technology-based practices in the care of children with cancer is important in increasing the quality of care.