PURPOSE: To compare the characteristics of cancer patients in Taiwan who use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to cancer patients who do not use CAM and determine the predictors of quality of life (QoL) among cancer patients who use CAM.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: Face-to-face interviews were conducted with and 3 questionnaires (the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Core Questionnaire, the Brief Fatigue Inventory, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) were administered to 216 cancer patients being treated at the Nuclear Medicine Department in southern Taiwan. Chi-square testing for categorical variables and t-testing for continuous variables were conducted to determine the correlation between sociodemographic and clinical data and CAM use. Analysis of variance was performed to conduct within-group comparison of QoL scales and CAM use. Linear regression models were established to predict QoL score.
RESULTS: A total of 216 cancer patients were interviewed. The prevalence of CAM use was found to be 69.4% (150 of 216 subjects). Among the CAM users, 91.6% had used traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), dietary supplementation (vitamin, herbal, mineral, glucosamine, mushroom, and/or fish oil supplementation), or detoxification therapy. A greater percentage (49.5%) of CAM users had breast cancer than any other type of cancer, and a very large percentage (74.7%) did not inform their primary caregiver of their CAM use, whereas 52.7% used CAM after initiation of diagnosis and 26.7% increased the original frequency of their CAM use during the course of their treatment. Overall QoL was not found to be significantly different between CAM users and nonusers. Predictors of poor QoL were female gender, breast or liver cancer patient, younger age, lower education, chemotherapy, increased frequency of CAM use, non-vitamin/TCM use, and having received CAM information from primary caregiver. The factors of CAM use, number of CAM modalities used, frequency of CAM use, duration of cancer diagnosis, mineral/algae supplementation, and detoxification therapy were not found to be significant in this population.
CONCLUSION: Cancer patients in Taiwan have a high rate of CAM use but a low rate of disclosure of CAM use to their primary caregivers. Multiple factors appear to have a significant correlation with poor QoL. Clinical physicians should emphasize the QoL of cancer survivors, providing more accurate CAM information and endeavoring to address their unmet needs.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0830112-233726 |
| Date | 30 August 2012 |
| Creators | Du, Wei-Ning |
| Contributors | Ying-Ying, Lo, Ying-Chun, Li, Ping-Yi, Chao |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0830112-233726 |
| Rights | user_define, Copyright information available at source archive |
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