Effects of a Self-Management Program for Patients With Colorectal Cancer and a Colostomy: A Nonrandomized Clinical Trial.

PURPOSE

We constructed a self-management program for rectal cancer survivors with colostomies and evaluated the effect of the program on self-efficacy, self-management ability, and incidence of stomal and peristomal complications.

DESIGN

A prospective, nonrandomized clinical trial.

SUBJECTS AND SETTING

Participants were recruited from 4 proctology departments in a tertiary hospital in northeast China. Fifty-five were assigned to the intervention group and 56 were assigned to the control group; 26 were lost to follow-up. Therefore, data analysis was based on 43 participants in the intervention group and 42 in the control group.

METHODS

Control group patients received the standard care where guidance and stoma care manuals were given the day before hospital discharge, and regular telephone follow-up twice a month for 3 months. Participants in the experimental group received, in addition to standard care, a self-management program delivered via a multimedia messaging app initiated after discharge available over a 6-week period. Primary outcomes were self-efficacy and self-management ability; we also analyzed the incidence of stomal and peristomal complications as a secondary outcome. Between-groups outcomes were analyzed via a repeated-measures analysis of variance.

RESULTS

Analysis indicated intervention group participants had higher levels of self-efficacy and self-management of their colostomies than did control group participants. Analysis also revealed intervention group participants had a lower incidence of peristomal complications; no differences in the incidence of stomal complications were found.

CONCLUSIONS

Study findings suggest that use of the multimedia messaging app-based self-management program enhanced self-efficacy and self-management, while reducing the incidence of peristomal complications in rectal cancer survivors with colostomies.