Cancer Impact, Complementary/Alternative Medicine Beliefs, and Quality of Life in Cancer Patients.
J Altern Complement Med
; 24(3): 276-281, 2018 Mar.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28876080
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among cancer impact, belief in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), CAM use, and quality of life (QOL).DESIGN:
The study used a cross-sectional, descriptive correlational design with convenience sampling. A total of 122 cancer patients participated. Data were collected at a medical center in Chunghua, Taiwan. The questionnaires included the Chinese version of the Cancer Problem in Living Scale (CPILS), Complementary and Alternative Medicine Belief Inventory (CAMBI), Complementary and Alternative Medicine scale, and Chinese versions of QOL scales, including the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G).RESULTS:
The mean age was 56.5 years, and most participants were male (n = 69, 56.6%), had completed high school or above (n = 56, 45.9%), and were married (n = 109, 89.3%). The most common type of cancer was oral (n = 17, 13.9%), followed by esophageal (n = 15, 12.3%) and colorectal (n = 13, 10.7%). Cancer patients, on average, use one or two types of CAM. The impact of cancer is significantly related to age (F = 7.12, p < 0.05), and income is related to QOL (F = 3.61, p < 0.05). Pearson correlations showed that the use of CAM was positively associated with belief in CAM (CAMBI) (r = 0.26, p = 0.01), and the impact of cancer was highly negatively associated with QOL (r = -0.71, p = 0.001). The predictors of QOL were the impact of cancer and use of CAM, and the impact of cancer accounted for 51% of the variance in QOL.CONCLUSION:
This study supports research on the impact of cancer, belief in CAM, and use of CAM as related to QOL in cancer patients. These results can be used to provide options to clinicians and cancer patients.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Quality of Life
/
Complementary Therapies
/
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
/
Neoplasms
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Qualitative_research
/
Risk_factors_studies
Aspects:
Patient_preference
Limits:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
En
Journal:
J Altern Complement Med
Journal subject:
TERAPIAS COMPLEMENTARES
Year:
2018
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
China