The effect of breathing exercise on nausea, vomiting and functional status in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the effect of breathing exercise on nausea, vomiting, and functional status in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Methods: This randomized controlled trial was conducted with a total of 60 breast cancer patients in the ambulatory chemotherapy unit of a university hospital. The data were collected using Patient Information Form, Functional Living Index-Cancer (FLI-C), Visual Analog Scale, and Patient Diary. The patients were followed up for the first seven days. While the control group received routine nursing care until the posttest, the intervention group received breathing exercise for six days. On the seventh day, FLI-C was repeated for all the patients.

Results: It was determined that the patients in the intervention group had less number of nausea, vomiting, and retching episodes after the breathing exercise (p < 0.05) and experienced lower severity of nausea (p < 0.05) compared to patients in the control group.

Conclusion: Consequently, it was determined that the breathing exercise reduced chemotherapy-induced nausea, vomiting and retching in breast cancer patients and affected positively functional status of patients.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Breathing exercise; Chemotherapy; Functional status; Nausea; Vomiting.