Abstract
Objective
To understand the healthcare needs of disabled oncology patients, explore the impact of home network hospital-based health education on disabled oncology patients’ healthcare needs, activity of daily living (ADL) scores, quality of survival, and caregiver burden, and to provide a reference basis for the effective implementation of health education for disabled oncology patients in the home and the improvement of their quality of life.
Methods
From May 2021 to May 2024, 112 patients with ADL Scale scores ≤60 who were hospitalized in 7 tertiary-level hospitals in Guangdong Province were selected for the questionnaire survey and implementation of the intervention analysis. The 112 study subjects chosen were randomly divided into 56 in the intervention group and 56 in the control group. The patients in the control group were discharged from the hospital and followed up once a month by telephone, health education, and disease rehabilitation guidance. The intervention group constructed a home network hospital on a routine basis, utilized the micro letter public number and APP applet intervention guidance for 6 consecutive months, and used the general information questionnaire, Barthel index, SF-36 quality of life scale (the Medical Outcomes Study item short-form health survey, SF-36), the caregiver’s quality of life scale (the SF-36), and the Caregiver Burden Scale ZBL (Zarit Burden Interview, ZBI), to investigate the number of care needs, quality of life, and the degree of caregiving burden of the 2 groups of patients.
Results
The quality of survival of all patients with disabling tumors was poor. Patients with moderate to severe dependence on ADL were not only impaired in physiological dimensions but also had varying degrees of reduction in psychological dimensions, with the lowest scores in physiological functioning and the highest scores in somatic pain. There was no statistically significant difference in the comparison of the general information and scores of patients in the 2 groups (P > 0.05). After 3 months and 6 months of intervention, the difference in scores between the 2 groups was statistically significant (P < 0.05), in which the SF-36 score of the intervention group was higher than that of the control group, and the ADL score was lower than that of the control group. There was a statistically significant difference in ADL and ZBI scores between the intervention and pre-intervention (P < 0.05) groups. In the control group, after 3 months of intervention, ADL and ZBI scores were statistically different compared with pre-intervention (P < 0.05); after 6 months of intervention, there was no statistical difference (P > 0.05).
Conclusions
Health education based on home network hospitals can reduce the healthcare needs of disabled oncology patients and meet their safety and physiological health guidance needs. The quality of life of disabled oncology patients is at the bottom level, the burden of family care is heavy, and the burden of care for the primary caregiver is heavy. At the root of the problem, there is a lack of scientific, effective, and practical interventions, which can be sorted by clarifying the patients’ needs for home care and providing targeted nursing skills can improve the quality of life of the patients and reduce somatic discomfort.