Abstract
BackgroundGastrointestinal cancer is one of the most common malignancies and imposes heavy burdens on both individual health and social economy. We sought to survey the effect of a self-care education program on quality of life and fatigue in gastrointestinal cancer patients who received chemotherapy.MethodsNinety-one eligible gastrointestinal cancer patients were enrolled in this study and 86 valid samples were analyzed. Data were acquired with a demographics questionnaire, endpoint multidimensional questionnaire and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) quality of life questionnaire QLQ-C30. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software.ResultsThe self-care education intervention significantly improved the quality of life with respect to emotional function (p = 0.018), role function (p = 0.041), cognitive function (p = 0.038) and alleviated side effects such as nausea/vomiting (p = 0.028) and fatigue (p = 0.029). Further analysis demonstrated that the self-care education benefited total fatigue, affective fatigue and cognitive fatigue in gastrointestinal cancer patients regardless of baseline depression.ConclusionOur results suggested the beneficial effects of the self-care education in both quality of life and anti-fatigue in gastrointestinal cancer patients under chemotherapy. The self-care education could be considered as a complementary approach during combination chemotherapy in gastrointestinal cancer patients.
Highlights
Gastrointestinal cancer is one of the most common malignancies and imposes heavy burdens on both individual health and social economy
The demographic characteristics displayed no significant differences between the participants with respect to body weight, body mass index (BMI), baseline depression, smoking history/status, tumor sites, tumor stage, surgical resection and chemotherapy history/regimen
Our results demonstrated the severe side effects elicited by chemotherapy in the control group of gastrointestinal cancer patients during the intervention window, which included decreased role function, worsened nausea/vomiting, diarrhea and increased fatigue
Summary
Gastrointestinal cancer is one of the most common malignancies and imposes heavy burdens on both individual health and social economy. We sought to survey the effect of a self-care education program on quality of life and fatigue in gastrointestinal cancer patients who received chemotherapy. Gastrointestinal cancer consists of malignant conditions in the gastrointestinal tract and accessory organs of digestion, including the esophagus, stomach, biliary system, pancreas, small intestine, large intestine, rectum, and anus, which represent the most common malignancies worldwide with persistently increasing mortality and morbidity [1]. Xie et al BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies (2020) 20:15 cancer patients. In addition to the standard therapies, remedies to control chemotherapy-associated side effects are critical for clinical care of cancer patients to improve general wellbeing
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