Assessment of Fatigue in and Care Needs of Turkish Women With Breast Cancer

Abstract

Using Piper's Integrated Fatigue Model, this research project was planned to determine the level of fatigue experienced by Turkish women with breast cancer undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy, to discover the factors affecting fatigue, and to provide a reference by means of which an effective nursing care for such patients could be planned. In assessing the level of fatigue and factors affecting it, a patient information form, the Piper Fatigue Scale, and the Rotterdam Symptom Checklist were used. The reliability tests performed afterwards showed that the scales are appropriate tools for use in Turkish women with breast cancer. Before treatment, psychological symptoms' distress was higher than physical symptoms' distress. However, following treatment, the latter was found to be closer to the former. When pretreatment and posttreatment physical and psychological symptoms were compared, it was noticed that fatigue, nausea, anorexia, vomiting, constipation, depression, and loss of hope for the future were among the symptoms observed to increase the most in the posttreatment period. Different from the other studies, we determined that all of the patients experienced fatigue 7 to 10 days after the chemotherapy cycle and the sensory/affective fatigue scores were high. Breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy experienced a moderate level of fatigue, which was influenced by level of income, stage of disease, and symptoms related to chemotherapy, showing compliance with similar studies. Following up patients individually and keeping the treatment-related symptoms under control were noticed to help prevent fatigue.

Effects of relaxation training on sleep quality and fatigue in patients with breast cancer undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy

“…Higher scores indicate more fatigue. A validity and reliability study of the PFS for Turkey was carried out by Can et al. (2004), and the Cronbach’s alpha for the entire 22‐item scale was 0·97.…”

Fatigue in Gynecological Cancer Patients During and After Anticancer Treatment

“…In this longitudinal survey demographic variables and factors associated with the tumour and anti-cancer treatment were unrelated to the fatigue. A large body of evidence exists to support the finding that CRF during anti-cancer treatment is not associated with tumour stage (12,22,23,46,51,56,60,(68)(69)(70) or any demographic (12,22,23,34,49,55,56,60,62,64,(66)(67)(68)(69)(70)(71) or treatment-related variables (12,22,23,46,51,53,55,60,64,(68)(69)(70)(71)(72). In contrast, two studies have reported that females experience more fatigue then males (62,73), three have demonstrated an association between increasing age and lower fatigue (12,34,53), one between marital status and fatigue, with divorced women experiencing the most fatigue …”

Psychiatric Symptoms and Psychosocial Problems in Patients with Breast Cancer

“…In addition to these, therapies cause several adverse effects, the most common ones were loss of energy, fatigue, pain, nausea and vomiting, hormonal changes, and sleep disorders; all of these adverse effects impair daily life functions of patients (102,103). Physical symptoms, fatigue in particular, were reported to have a huge impact on quality of life, which gave rise to the formation of physiologic and psychological symptoms (104).…”