Paper
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Patterns of Use of Complementary Therapies Among Cancer Patients and Their Family Caregivers
Sharon Kozachik, RN, MSN, MSc, Family Care Studies, Michigan State University, Walther Cancer Institute, East Lansing, MI, USA and Gwen Karilyn Wyatt, RN, PhD, College of Nursing, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
| Learning Objective #1: Describe patterns of use of complementary therapies among cancer patients and their family caregivers |
| Learning Objective #2: Discuss the integration of a complementary therapy protocol into a conventional NCI Community Oncology Program |
Objective: To describe characteristics that predicted the number of Complementary Therapies (CTs) selected, and to examine the patterns of CT use among cancer patients and their family caregivers engaged in an 8-week, 5-contact, nurse-directed CT intervention. Design: Quasi-experimental; descriptive, longitudinal. The Wyatt Quality of Life (QOL) model was utilized. Setting/Sample: NCI Community Clinical Oncology Program located in the Midwest. 100 patients receiving chemotherapy for cancer, participated with or without a family caregiver; 70 were female and 30 were males. Eighty caregivers participated; 41 were female and 39 were male. Concepts: Demographics and patters of CT use. Methods: The nurse collected protocol data at each of the 5 encounters over the 8-week intervention. Three CTs were available for patient selection: guided imagery, reflexology, and reminiscence. Demographics were collected after consent for both patients and their caregivers. There were 3 Waves of data collected via telephone interviews: baseline, 9 weeks, and 16 weeks. This abstract focuses upon the demographic and encounter data. Findings: 376 patients were eligible, and 100 (27%) consented to the study. Completion of one CT was the most frequent level of participation for both patients and family caregivers. For patients, only higher education differentiated those who selected to use two or more CTs from those who selected only one CT. There were no significant differences among caregivers. Conclusions: Patients are most likely to complete one CT. Implications: Complementary and Alternative Medicine use in the United States (U.S.) continues to rise, and because cancer patients in past studies have reported that CTs gave them hope and positively mediated their cancer experience, providers need to be alert to the characteristics of patients and caregivers who used CTs, and the number of CTs they can realistically fit into their lives during chemotherapy.
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Back to 15th International Nursing Research Congress
Sigma Theta Tau International
July 22-24, 2004