scholarly journals The Impacts of Nutrition Education Programs on Cancer Survivors' Nutritional Status

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement 2) ◽  
pp. 173s-173s
Author(s):  
Y.-F. Chang ◽  
Y.-C. Yu ◽  
J. Tsai Lai

Background and context: Since 1982, cancer has been the leading cause of death in Taiwan, claiming more than 40,000 lives each year. This not only caused huge medical expenses, but also affected the quality of life of patients and their families. However, many cancer survivors and their caregivers do not fully understand lifestyle advice, including nutrition and dietary behaviors, to lower the progression of the disease. Due to cancer and painstaking treatment, cancer patients often suffer from inadequate calories intake and serious body weight (BW) loss, which is highly related to malnutrition or cancer cachexia. After they leave the hospital, they still need nutritional guidance; therefore, the importance of providing nutrition services in the community should be emphasized. Aim: To help cancer survivors achieve better nutritional status by teaching them how to have adequate calories intakes and maintain BW that they're supposed to have better quality of life. Strategy/Tactics: (1) Cancer survivors with nutritional needs were referred from 66 cooperative cancer resources centers of hospitals nationwide. (2) Dietitians assess their nutritional conditions and provide nutritional guidance. (3) Deliver free nutritional supplements to the cancer survivors who are financially disadvantaged or have dysphagia problems. Program/Policy process: The registered dietitians conducted nutritional education through nutrition counseling and guidance. For those who are financially disadvantaged or have dysphagia problems, the 24-hour dietary recall and PG-SGA scale were used to assess the survivors' nutritional status, including BW and calories intake, then free nutritional supplements according to their needs and a regular follow-up to collect their BW and nutritional information changes after our interventions were done. Outcomes: From 2016 to 2017, a total of 434 of cancer survivors who have financial difficulties or dysphagia problems accepted the free nutritional supplements and nutritional guidance services. 178 survivors completed follow-up and collected nutritional information. 40.4% of them are head and neck cancers, 38.2% are digestive system-related cancers that were in poor eating conditions. After our interventions, 70.2% of these survivors can maintain or increase their BW with average BW 57.9 ± 12.8 kg; and 77.0% can maintain or increase the calories intake, which average increased from 1798 ± 252.5 kcal/day to 1541.6 ± 347.9 kcal/day. What was learned: We can effectively help cancer survivors achieve adequate calories intakes and maintain BW to prevent the occurrence of malnutrition by providing the services of nutritional supplements and nutritional guidance.

2018 ◽  
Vol 119 (10) ◽  
pp. 1185-1194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marije N. van Doorn-van Atten ◽  
Annemien Haveman-Nies ◽  
Marit M. van Bakel ◽  
Monique Ferry ◽  
Maite Franco ◽  
...  

AbstractThis study aimed to evaluate the effects of an intervention including nutritional telemonitoring, nutrition education, and follow-up by a nurse on nutritional status, diet quality, appetite, physical functioning and quality of life of Dutch community-dwelling elderly. We used a parallel arm pre-test post-test design with 214 older adults (average age 80 years) who were allocated to the intervention group (n97) or control group (n107), based on the municipality. The intervention group received a 6-month intervention including telemonitoring measurements, nutrition education and follow-up by a nurse. Effect measurements took place at baseline, after 4·5 months, and at the end of the study. The intervention improved nutritional status of participants at risk of undernutrition (β(T1)=2·55; 95 % CI 1·41, 3·68;β(T2)=1·77; 95 % CI 0·60, 2·94) and scores for compliance with Dutch guidelines for the intake of vegetables (β=1·27; 95 % CI 0·49, 2·05), fruit (β=1·24; 95 % CI 0·60, 1·88), dietary fibre (β=1·13; 95 % CI 0·70, 1·57), protein (β=1·20; 95 % CI 0·15, 2·24) and physical activity (β=2·13; 95 % CI 0·98, 3·29). The intervention did not have an effect on body weight, appetite, physical functioning and quality of life. In conclusion, this intervention leads to improved nutritional status in older adults at risk of undernutrition, and to improved diet quality and physical activity levels of community-dwelling elderly. Future studies with a longer duration should focus on older adults at higher risk of undernutrition than this study population to investigate whether the impact of the intervention on nutritional and functional outcomes can be improved.


2020 ◽  
pp. bmjspcare-2020-002190
Author(s):  
Amanda Drury ◽  
Sheila Payne ◽  
Anne-Marie Brady

ObjectiveCancer survivors’ perceptions of healthcare have been identified as a predictor of quality of life (QoL) outcomes. This study aims to explore colorectal cancer (CRC) survivors’ perceptions of how cancer-related healthcare affects their QoL.MethodsSemistructured interviews were conducted with 22 CRC survivors receiving follow-up care between 1 and 5 years post diagnosis. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically.ResultsFive themes described the impact of healthcare experiences on CRC survivors’ QoL. While cancer survivors spoke positively of their relationships with healthcare professionals, many experienced a range of unmet information and supportive care needs. Participants described a range of positive and negative experiences, as power dynamics and navigation of healthcare systems had implications for their QoL. Where negative healthcare events aligned, survivors’ autonomy, dignity and confidence were undermined, and survivorship issues could be inadequately addressed. To address persistent unmet needs, survivors developed a safety net(work) of supports to bridge the gap of unmet needs in healthcare with varying outcomes.ConclusionsCancer survivors’ experience of follow-up and healthcare can positively or negatively affect their QoL. Preparation for cancer survivorship must be incorporated into the acute phase of diagnosis and treatment and interlinked with clear pathways of survivorship care and accessible supportive care, which support survivors to be equal partners in their healthcare. Understanding cancer survivors’ knowledge, expertise and mastery of their condition is essential to ensure delivery of person-centred supportive care that adequately addresses the survivor’s unmet needs.


2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 822-828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allyson D. Diggins ◽  
Lauren E. Hearn ◽  
Suzanne C. Lechner ◽  
Debra Annane ◽  
Michael H. Antoni ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement 2) ◽  
pp. 100s-100s
Author(s):  
N. Kaur ◽  
A. Gupta ◽  
A.K. Sharma

Background: Cancer survivorship is an unremitting struggle for breast cancer patients, as the consequence of complex treatment processes and its multitude of residual and late emerging side effects, have a significant impact on their quality of life (QOL). Unique issues of survivorship include those related to physical, psychological, social, and spiritual well-being of women. Amid a growing population of breast cancer survivors (BCs) worldwide, supportive care research is assuming greater importance in breast cancer care. Focus of survivorship research is to identify issues impacting QOL of the cancer survivors so that supportive care services can be tailored to their specific needs. Role of individual survivor's issues have been widely reported but a comprehensive picture is lacking. Aim: This study was conducted with the aim to identify important survivorship issues adversely affecting QOL of women after breast cancer treatment. Main objectives were to (1) estimate prevalence of various survivorship issues (2) assess QOL of survivors by using FACT-B and SF-36 questionnaires (3) study impact of time elapsed since treatment on survivorship issues and QOL scores (4) identify most important issues from the perspective of impact on QOL. Methods: This descriptive, hospital based, cross sectional study was conducted in 230 breast cancer survivors and a group of 112 healthy age-matched-controls, in an academic healthcare setting in northern India. A checklist of 14 commonly reported survivorship issues, and questionnaires for QOL assessment were administered to participants. Main outcome measures were (1) frequencies of survivorship issues and QOL scores among three groups divided on the basis of time elapsed since treatment (< 2 year follow-up, 2-5 year follow-up and > 5 year follow-up) (2) association of survivorship issues with QOL scores (3) stepwise regression analysis to identify issues with most significant impact on QOL of survivors. Results: Breast cancer survivors showed an improvement in their QOL over time which was sustained in long term survivors. However their quality of life remains poorer, compared with healthy women, irrespective of the duration of follow-up. The most prevalent survivorship issues were fatigue (60%), restriction of shoulder movement (59.6%), body and joint pain (63.5%), chemotherapy induced cessation of menstruation (73.3%) and loss of sexual desire (60%). However the issues which had maximum adverse effect on QOL scores were emotional distress, fatigue, postmastectomy chronic pain, cessation of menstruation, body and joint pain, vaginal dryness and sleep disturbances. Conclusion: Thus in this study, emotional distress and cancer related fatigue were found to be the chief determinants of poor QOL. Further premature menopause, with its attendant systemic symptoms, vulvo-vaginal atrophy and sexual dysfunction emerged as a key contributor to poor QOL in BCs.


1998 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 487-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Dorval ◽  
E Maunsell ◽  
L Deschênes ◽  
J Brisson ◽  
B Mâsse

PURPOSE Quality of life of breast cancer survivors 8 years after diagnosis was compared with that among similarly aged women who had never confronted cancer (controls). METHODS Survivors of a consecutive series of 227 breast cancer patients first treated in 1984 were approached for this study. Random-digit dialing was used to identify controls with the same age and residential distribution as the survivors. Quality of life was assessed in terms of physical health, functional status, psychologic distress, and social functioning. RESULTS Participation was obtained from 96% (n = 124) of 129 eligible survivors and 61% (n = 262) of 427 potentially eligible controls. Consistently smaller proportions of survivors reported positive quality-of-life outcomes compared with controls, but these differences were generally small and nonsignificant statistically. When limited to women who remained free of disease over the entire follow-up period (n = 98), survivors' quality of life was similar to that among controls, with the exception of arm problems and sexual satisfaction for those women who lived with a partner. In contrast, survivors who developed recurrence or new primary breast cancer (n = 26) experienced a worse quality of life in all domains except social functioning. CONCLUSION In most domains and for women without further disease events after diagnosis, quality of life does not seem to be permanently and globally impaired by breast cancer. Consequently, breast cancer survivors who remain free of disease probably do not need organized late psychosocial follow-up to improve quality of life. However, arm problems and sexuality are two areas in which additional effort may be still needed to improve quality of life of long-term survivors.


2004 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sindy Oh ◽  
Lara Heflin ◽  
Beth E. Meyerowitz ◽  
Katherine A. Desmond ◽  
Julia H. Rowland ◽  
...  

2003 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Gaudine ◽  
Marilyn Sturge-Jacobs ◽  
Mary Kennedy

Much research exists on quality of life issues with breast cancer survivors. However, there has been little done on the waiting experience itself, and on the experience of follow-up from the women’s perspective. Women who have been diagnosed and treated for breast cancer live with the condition for a minimum of 5 years, waiting for the next medical intervention; waiting for the next battery of tests; waiting for the next physician check-up. Throughout most of these years they may feel healthy, but they experience visits to cancer clinics, medical testing, and physician interactions. Women’s accounts of their experiences of waiting and life during follow-up for breast cancer has not been the focus of research on the quality of life of breast cancer survivors. In particular research that uses a qualitative approach, in which women recount their experiences in their own language, has been missing. This study used a phenomenological approach, telling the stories of waiting and life throughout follow-up of nine women. The women’s experiences are captured in four themes: life-changing; a sense of belonging; uncertainty; needing to know.


2013 ◽  
Vol 206 (5) ◽  
pp. 625-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Catherine Lee ◽  
Rajendra S. Bhati ◽  
Edina E. von Rottenthaler ◽  
Angela M. Reagan ◽  
Sloan B. Karver ◽  
...  

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