Author Affiliations: Department of Nursing (Dr Oh); Department of Nursing, Graduate School (Ms Cho), Sahmyook University, Seoul, Korea.
Cancer Nurs. 2020 Jan/Feb;43(1):E54-E60. doi: 10.1097/NCC.0000000000000689.
Chemotherapy leads to various symptoms and psychological distress, which contribute to a significant decrease in the quality of life of the patients.
The aim of this study was to identify changes and interrelationships in the fatigue-depression-anxiety symptom cluster and quality of life during the cancer care trajectory in women with breast cancer.
Fifty women participated in the study and completed questionnaires at 3 different times: prechemotherapy, postchemotherapy, and 6 months after the completion of chemotherapy. The assessment tools were the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Fatigue Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast Cancer version 4 Scale. Data were analyzed using descriptive and repeated-measures analysis of variance statistics.
A significant increase in fatigue (F = 41.95, P < .001) and psychological distress (F = 26.55, P < .001) from prechemotherapy to postchemotherapy was noted. Improvement was observed 6 months after the completion of chemotherapy. A positive or negative change in fatigue was associated with the same in psychological distress. Quality of life (F = 65.22, P < .001) also showed similar change patterns as observed with fatigue and psychological distress. Fatigue had a greater impact on quality of life at postchemotherapy, but psychological distress had a greater impact at prechemotherapy and at the 6-month follow-up.
These results suggest that chemotherapy is highly associated with the fatigue-depression-anxiety symptom cluster and quality of life in women with breast cancer.
Nursing intervention is needed to relieve the intensity of the fatigue-depression-anxiety symptom cluster and thus improve the quality of life of patients undergoing chemotherapy from before treatment to follow-up.
化疗会导致各种症状和心理困扰，这会显著降低患者的生活质量。
本研究旨在确定乳腺癌女性在癌症治疗过程中，疲劳-抑郁-焦虑症状群和生活质量在化疗前后的变化和相互关系。
50 名女性参与了这项研究，并在 3 个不同时间点完成了问卷调查：化疗前、化疗后和化疗完成后 6 个月。评估工具包括癌症治疗功能评估-疲劳量表、医院焦虑和抑郁量表、癌症治疗功能评估-乳腺癌 4 版量表。数据采用描述性和重复测量方差分析进行分析。
从化疗前到化疗后，疲劳（F = 41.95，P <.001）和心理困扰（F = 26.55，P <.001）显著增加。化疗完成后 6 个月观察到改善。疲劳的变化与心理困扰的变化呈正相关或负相关。生活质量（F = 65.22，P <.001）也表现出与疲劳和心理困扰相似的变化模式。化疗后疲劳对生活质量的影响更大，但化疗前和 6 个月随访时心理困扰的影响更大。
这些结果表明，化疗与乳腺癌女性的疲劳-抑郁-焦虑症状群和生活质量密切相关。
需要进行护理干预，以减轻疲劳-抑郁-焦虑症状群的强度，从而提高接受化疗的患者的生活质量，从治疗前到随访。
