Self-care practices, patient education in women with breast cancer-related lymphedema.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Deveci, Zeynep Karayurt, Özgül Eyigör, Sibel
Copyright Year	2021
Abstract	ObjectivesThis study aims to evaluate self-care practices, sociodemographic and clinical factors that affect self-care and patient education among women with breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL).Patients and methodsThis descriptive, cross-sectional study included a total of 102 women with BCRL (median age: 59 years; range, 35 to 80 years) who received lymphedema (LE) treatment at least once between July 2014 and May 2016. A Sociodemographic and Clinical Characteristics Form and the Lymphedema Self-care Survey were used to collect data via face-to-face interviews.ResultsThe median LE self-care practices score for women was 10 (range, 5 to 14). A total of 39.1% of the women implemented regular self-care. A statistically significant relationship was found between the score for perceived benefit of LE self-care and the score for self-care practice. No statistically significant difference was found among the self-care scores of the women with LE in terms of sociodemographic and clinical factors, except for education status. A total of 90.2% of the women with LE received self-care education, mostly from a physical therapy specialist and a physiotherapist. There was a statistically significant difference among self-care scores between patients who were educated and uneducated about LE.ConclusionIt is recommended that healthcare professionals should educate patients diagnosed with breast cancer to reduce LE risk and promote the implementation of self-care practices following the breast cancer surgery. Interventions should be made to increase the perceived benefits and reduce the perceived barriers and burden towards self-care behaviors to prevent and manage LE.
Related Links	https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC8343163&blobtype=pdf
ISSN	25870823
Journal	Turkish Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation [Turk J Phys Med Rehabil]
Volume Number	67
DOI	10.5606/tftrd.2021.5022
PubMed Central reference number	PMC8343163
Issue Number	2
PubMed reference number	34396069
e-ISSN	25871250
Language	English
Publisher	Bayçınar Medical Publishing
Publisher Date	2021-05-25
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. Copyright © 2021, Turkish Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Subject Keyword	Breast cancer education of patient lymphedema self-care
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Rehabilitation Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation