乌干达常规治疗联合/不联合草药治疗癌症患者的症状严重程度和生活质量差异：一项横断面研究。
Differences in Symptom Severity and Quality of Life among Patients with Cancer Using Conventional Therapies with/without Herbal Medicines in Uganda: A Cross-Sectional Study.
机构信息
Department of Pharmacy, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Mbarara, Uganda, Aga Khan University, Uganda Campus, Kampala, Uganda.
The Centre for Local Health Traditions and Policy, the University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology, Bangalore, India.
出版信息
Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2023 Sep 1;24(9):3195-3205. doi: 10.31557/APJCP.2023.24.9.3195.
OBJECTIVE
Patients with cancer experience numerous symptoms related to cancer and treatment side effects that reduce their quality of life (QOL). Although herbal medicine (HM) is used to manage such symptoms by patients in sub-Saharan Africa, data on patients' perceived clinical outcomes are limited. We compared differences in QOL and symptom severity between patients with cancer using HM plus conventional therapies (i.e., chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, radiotherapy, surgery) and those using conventional therapies alone.
METHODS
This cross-sectional study included patients with cancer aged >18 years who were consecutively sampled and completed a researcher-administered questionnaire between December 2022 and January 2023. Specifically, data was collected using The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) and the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory for Traditional Chinese Medicine (MDASI-TCM). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square and logistic regression analyses.
RESULTS
Of 400 participants (67.5% female), 49% (n=195) used HM plus conventional therapies and 51% (n=205) used conventional therapies alone. Most participants were aged >38 years (73.3%; median age 47 years). A univariate analysis showed the HM plus conventional therapies group had better mean scores for most QOL and symptom severity measures than the conventional therapies alone group. However, only role functioning significantly differed (p=0.046) in the bivariate analysis. There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups after confounder adjustment for all others measures of symptom severity and QOL.
CONCLUSION
HM plus conventional therapies may offer minimal benefits or differences for clinical outcomes among patients with cancer. However, our findings have clinical, research, and public health implications for Uganda and other sub-Saharan African settings.
目的
癌症患者会经历许多与癌症和治疗副作用相关的症状，这些症状降低了他们的生活质量（QOL）。尽管在撒哈拉以南非洲，患者会使用草药（HM）来控制这些症状，但关于患者对临床结果的感知的数据有限。我们比较了使用 HM 加常规疗法（即化疗、激素疗法、放疗、手术）和仅使用常规疗法的癌症患者在 QOL 和症状严重程度方面的差异。
方法
这是一项横断面研究，纳入了年龄>18 岁的连续抽样并在 2022 年 12 月至 2023 年 1 月期间完成了研究者管理的问卷的癌症患者。具体来说，使用欧洲癌症研究与治疗组织生活质量问卷（EORTC QLQ-C30）和 MD 安德森中医症状量表（MDASI-TCM）收集数据。使用描述性统计、卡方检验和逻辑回归分析进行数据分析。
结果
在 400 名参与者中（67.5%为女性），49%（n=195）使用 HM 加常规疗法，51%（n=205）仅使用常规疗法。大多数参与者年龄>38 岁（73.3%；中位数年龄 47 岁）。单变量分析显示，HM 加常规疗法组在大多数 QOL 和症状严重程度测量指标上的平均得分均优于仅常规疗法组。然而，仅角色功能在双变量分析中存在显著差异（p=0.046）。在对所有其他症状严重程度和 QOL 测量指标进行混杂因素调整后，两组之间没有统计学上的显著差异。
结论
HM 加常规疗法可能对癌症患者的临床结果没有带来明显的益处或差异。然而，我们的研究结果对乌干达和其他撒哈拉以南非洲地区具有临床、研究和公共卫生意义。
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