Knowledge of and Compliance with Neutropenic Diet in Patients with Hematologic Malignancy undergoing Chemotherapy

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate knowledge of and compliance with the neutropenic diet in hemato-oncology patients undergoing chemotherapy. METHODS: 123 hemato-oncology patients who had more than one chemotherapy participated in this study. Data were collected with a self-administered questionnaire from July 21 to September 26, 2014, and analyzed with SPSS 21.0 program using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA and Pearson's correlation. RESULTS: The average of score for the neutropenic diet was 60.9 out of 100 points and mean compliance score was 69.5 out of 100 percent scale. For preventing infection, patients were found to be stricter in their intake of restricted foods than acceptable foods during neutropenia. There were significant correlations between the knowledge of and compliance with the neutropenic diet in patients receiving chemotherapy (r=.53, p<.001). CONCLUSION: It is necessary to nursing assessment and education should include a periodic assessment of nutritional status and risk evaluation of neutropenia and bacterial infections. This study recommended nursing research to establish a recommendation criterion for a restrictive neutropenic diet and less restrictive food safety education programs for cancer patients.

Survey on Dietary Restrictions for Neutropenic Patients / 종양간호학회지

PURPOSE: This survey was aimed to examine the current dietary restrictions practices for neutropenic patients among hospitals with 500 and more beds. METHODS: Self-administered questionnaires were sent to 100 head or charge nurses of oncology or hemato-oncology wards by mail during October 2009, and 51 questionnaires were returned. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics using SPSS (WIN version 12.0). RESULTS: Of the hospitals surveyed, 47.1% (n=24) had guidelines on the dietary restrictions, and 80.4% (n=41) placed patients with neutropenia on restricted diets. The major decisional criteria of the dietary restriction was absolute neutrophil count (30.5%) and cooking status (29.2%). The most commonly restricted foods were raw fish or fresh meat (98.0%), uncooked intestine (98.0%), raw eggs (98.0%), draught beer (96.1%), and fresh fruits or vegetables (86.3%). CONCLUSION: The results showed variation in pattern of dietary restrictions and lower rate of guideline among hospitals, so that the need for the standard dietary restriction guideline is high. However, the role of diet in the development of infection in neutropenic patients is still unclear, which makes it difficult to establish dietary restriction guideline. Therefore, additional research are required to identify the relationship between dietary factors and infections.