Impacts of self-care education on adverse events and mental health related quality of life in breast cancer patients under chemotherapy.

OBJECTIVE

As a consequence of its high incidence, breast cancer has become a severe health risk in women. Chemotherapy is one of the main treatments for breast cancer, but causes a decline in life quality of patients. Self-care is a non-medical intervention and has been reported to improve the life quality of colorectal cancer patients. We aim to explore whether self-care is also effective in breast cancer.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

85 breast cancer patients under chemotherapy participated in this research, among whom 44 patients received the self-care education. The physical and mental conditions of patients before and after chemotherapy were evaluated by Anxiety Inventory, Rotterdam Symptom checklists and QLQ-C30.

RESULTS

The result showed that the occurrence rates of symptoms were significantly reduced after self-care measures. Anxiety Inventory and Rotterdam Symptom checklists indicated that self-care measures could improve both the physical and mental conditions of patients. The Global Quality of Life (QoL) from QLQ-C30 questionnaire further confirmed the effectiveness of self-care measures in breast cancer patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the results, self-care measures are effective in improving the physical and mental conditions of breast cancer patients under chemotherapy. Self-care measures play an important role in improving patients' life quality.