Health Literacy, Symptoms and Self-Symptom Management of Head and Neck Cancer Patients’ ongoing Radiation Treatment
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Abstract
Inadequate health literacy has been shown to impact health outcomes of patients with cancer. However, there are limited studies about functional health literacy, symptoms, and self-management in head and neck cancer patients. This cross-sectional descriptive study aimed to study functional health literacy, symptoms and self-management in head and neck cancer patients’ ongoing radiation treatment. The sample consisted of 110 head and neck cancer patients receiving radiotherapy at the Cancer Hospital between January 2021 - April 2021. Purposive sampling with inclusion criteria was used. The research tools included Brief Health Literacy Screen, and symptom and self-symptom management questionnaires. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. The results found that the majority of the sample was male (73.50%) and the average age was 58.13 years (SD ± 15.65). The educational level of most of the sample was elementary school (77.6%) and the most common cancer location of the head and neck was the nasopharynx (27.27%). Adequate functional health literacy was 60.09%. The most common symptoms found were xerostomia (52.7%) of and fatigue (50.9%) . The severity of the symptoms was moderate for both xerostomia and fatigue.. Self-management of the symptoms of xerostomia were to drink water and gargle. Fatigue was managed by bed rest and consuming sweet drinks.
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บทความและรายงานวิจัยในวารสารพยาบาลกระทรวงสาธารณสุข เป็นความคิดเห็นของ ผู้เขียน มิใช่ของคณะผู้จัดทำ และมิใช่ความรับผิดชอบของสมาคมศิษย์เก่าพยาบาลกระทรวงสาธารณสุข ซึ่งสามารถนำไปอ้างอิงได้
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