Evaluation of the Efficacy of the Three-Component Health Care Management Program HEWCOT in Colorectal Cancer Patients Receiving Chemotherapy

Abstract

This study was performed to evaluate effects of education, home visits, web, and phone counseling on chemotherapy symptoms and anxiety in patients with colorectal cancer receiving chemotherapy. This pretest-posttest, quasi-experimental study was conducted in a chemotherapy unit of a hospital between February 2014 and October 2015. Due to dropouts from the study, was completed on 51 participants in the control group and 31 participants in the experimental group. The experimental group was offered a program that includes home visit, nursing education, web counseling, and tele-counseling (HEWCOT), developed by the researchers, to control symptoms and to reduce anxiety. The experimental group less frequently experienced constipation, pain, pricking and numbness in hands and feet, skin and nail problems, ocular problems, weakness, headache, mouth and throat problems, anxiety, and restlessness than the control group. The experimental group had less severe infection symptoms, hair loss, and mouth and throat problems after the interventions than the control group. In this study, the patients followed at home and provided web counseling and tele-counseling experienced less frequently chemotherapy symptoms.

Keywords: Chemotherapy; Colorectal cancer; Home visit; Nursing.