Investigating on taste changes and self care in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy

VernacularTitle:对肿瘤化疗患者味觉改变及自我管理现状的调查
Author: Zi-Fang JIANG ¹ ; Fang-Ying YANG ; Wan-Ying WU ; Jiao-Yu GE ; Qun GAN ; Ling-Fang MA
Author Information

1. 浙江省肿瘤医院化疗科
Keywords: Chemotherapy; Cancer; Taste changes; Self care
From: Chinese Journal of Modern Nursing 2013;19(16):1914-1916
CountryChina
Language:Chinese
Abstract: Objective To investigate the status of taste changes and self care in cancer patients during chemotherapy in order to provide evidence for nurses to help patients taking self care effectively.Methods A questionnaire regarding self-care strategies to cope with taste changes was given to a total of 118 inpatients after two cycle of chemotherapy for collecting information.Results One hundred and twenty questionnaires were released and 118 were retrieved with a effective response rate of 98％.Among 118 patients,the incidence of taste changes was 79.7％,but 54.2％ of them had not taken any methods to cope with it.Conclusions Taste changes were commonly symptoms and had obvious negative effects to patients in chemotherapy,while the patients are lack of self-management of taste changes.Nurses may take interventions to minimize the negative effects and promote patients to perform self-care actions to improve their quality of life.