Complementary and alternative medicine self-care strategies for nausea in patients undergoing abdominal or pelvic irradiation for cancer: A longitudinal observational study of implementation in routine care
2017 (English)In: Complementary Therapies in Medicine, ISSN 0965-2299, E-ISSN 1873-6963, Vol. 34, p. 141-148Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Objective: To longitudinally describe practice of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) self-care strategies for nausea during radiotherapy. Methods: Two hundred patients daily registered nausea and practice of CAM self-care strategies, beside conventional antiemetic medications, for nausea during abdominal/pelvic irradiation (median five weeks) for gynecological (69%) colorectal (27%) or other tumors (4%). Results: During radiotherapy, 131 (66%) experienced nausea, and 50 (25%) practiced self-care for nausea at least once, for a mean (m) of 15.9 days. The six of 50 patients who stayed free from nausea practiced self-care more frequent (m = 25.8 days) than the 44 patients experiencing nausea (m = 14.5) (p = 0.013). The CAM self-care strategies were: modifying eating (80% of all self-care practicing patients, 80% of the nauseous patients versus 83% of the patients free from nausea; ns) or drinking habits (38%, 41% vs 17%; ns), taking rests (18%, 20% vs 0%; ns), physical exercising (6%, 2% vs 33%; p = 0.035), acupressure (4%, 5% vs 0%; ns) and self-induced vomiting (2%, 2% vs 0%; ns). Conclusion: A fourth of patients undergoing emetogenic radiotherapy practiced CAM self-care for nausea, mostly by modifying eating or drinking habits. The CAM self-care practicing patients who did not become nauseous practiced self-care more frequent than the nauseous patients did. To make such self-care evidence based, we need studies evaluating its efficacy.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
CHURCHILL LIVINGSTONE , 2017. Vol. 34, p. 141-148
Keywords [en]
Dietary modifications; Emesis; Integrative medicine; Physical activity; Self-management; Vomiting
National Category
Nursing
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-142156DOI: 10.1016/j.ctim.2017.08.003ISI: 000412611500017PubMedID: 28917366OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-142156DiVA, id: diva2:1151687
Note
Funding Agencies|Swedish Cancer Society; Vardal Institute; Region of Ostergotland; University of Linkoping; Cancer Rehabilitation Foundation; Vardal Foundation for Health Care Sciences and Allergy Research; Osher Centre for Integrative Research, Karolinska Institute, Sweden
2017-10-242017-10-242017-10-24