Investigating the Role of Palliative Care Education in Improving the Life Quality of Women with Breast Cancer

Abstract

Considering the high prevalence of breast cancer and its effect on the life quality of affected people, the current study was done to investigate the role of palliative care education in improving the life quality of women with breast cancer. In this clinical trial, 46 breast cancer patients were randomly selected and placed in two intervention and control groups. The control group of routine care and the intervention group additionally received 4 weeks of designed training care. The Missoula quality of life questionnaire was completed before, immediately after, and one month after the intervention for both groups. Data analysis was done by independent t-test, paired t-test, and chi-square with SPSS version 23 software. Based on the obtained results, the average quality of life scores of the intervention group patients after and before the intervention had a statistically significant difference (P = 0.003) and this difference was not significant in the control group (P = 0.67). In addition, there was a statistically significant difference in the average quality of life scores of the two control and intervention groups immediately and one month after the intervention (P<0.0001). From the results of this study, it can be stated that palliative care training can improve the life quality of breast cancer patients, so the systematic and comprehensive provision of this care can be improved by training them with an emphasis on the centrality of the patient's role.