ผลของโปรแกรมส่งเสริมความรอบรู้ด้านสุขภาพต่อการจัดการตนเองในผู้สูงอายุโรคมะเร็งเต้านมที่ได้รับรังสีรักษา

Abstract

Health literacy is an essential factor for more effective self-management among older persons with breast cancer who receive radiation therapy. The purpose of this experimental research was to study the effect of a health literacy enhancement program on self-management among elderly patients with breast cancer receiving radiation therapy. The subjects consisted of 54 elderly patients with breast cancer receiving radiation therapy who received services at the radiation therapy outpatient department of Lampang Cancer Hospital in Lampang Province. They, were randomly divided into 2 groups, an experimental group and a control group, with 27 patients in each. The control group received usual care, by radiotherapy nurse of Lampang Cancer Hospital, who provide care according to the problems encountered, and the experimental group participated in the health education program four times and a one-time individual session for a duration of 3 weeks. The research instruments included the health literacy enhancement program, a personal data and illness questionnaire, and a questionnaire on self-management behavior for older breast cancer patients receiving radiotherapy. Research tools passed quality checks. The health literacy enhancement program was examined by 6 experts, obtaining a content validity index of .99, and the self-management behavior questionnaire’s internal consistency had a Pearson’s correlation coefficient of .97. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-test statistics, and paired t-test statistics. The results showed that mean self-management scores of radiotherapy-treated older persons with breast cancer who received the health literacy enhancement program were significantly higher than those who received usual care (p<.001) and greater than before receiving the health literacy promotion program (p<.001). The results of this research showed that the health literacy enhancement programed resulted in better self-management, and could, therefore, be applied to promote continued self-management in older persons with breast cancer who have received radiation therapy.