The Italian Wellness Survey of More Than 1000 Ostomy Patients: Trends in Patient Adjustment After Stoma Placement

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Despite technological advances to minimize the damage caused by ostomy surgery, patients face many physical and emotional challenges that can severely impact their health-related quality of life. PURPOSE: This survey monitored the wellness of patients with ostomies during their clinical follow-up through the 8-item Wellness Questionnaire, a simplified version of the validated Ostomy-Q. METHODS: The survey involved 1054 Italian novice and expert ostomy appliance users who had received a new device prescription (expert users changed to a new device due to problems with a previous device such as a change in weight or body profile and leakage). Patients were questioned at 2 time points: baseline (T0) and 4 weeks after stoma placement (T1). RESULTS: The overall Wellness Questionnaire score and the individual items generally improved from T0 to T1 for both types of users, suggesting that both novice and expert users face an adjustment phase for the ostomy device that impacts several aspects of their life. However, novice users were less concerned about social relations and skin irritation at both time points compared with expert users, whereas device visibility under clothes at T0 and social relationships at T1 were of lesser concern for experienced users than for novice ones. CONCLUSION: The Wellness Questionnaire, carried out by stoma therapists during the clinical follow-up of patients with ostomies, highlighted an overall improving trend 1 month after the device prescription for both expert and novice users. Both types of patients faced daily challenges related to the new ostomy device but from different perspectives. Further studies are needed to confirm the outcomes of this survey.