Search:

Cancer Control Research

Abstract

The focus of this application is on cancer control research related to rehabilitation and quality of life (QOL) in patients with ostomies. The specific aims of this investigations are (1) to describe QOL issues through in-depth interviews with cancer patients who have ostomies. (2) to adapt and evaluate the City of hope QOL Index to reflect concerns expressed in interviews with patients, (3) to describe QOL using the adapted QOL instrument via a mailed survey to 150 cancer patients with an ostomy, (4) to conduct psychometric analysis of the QOL instrument used for the mailed survey. (5) to identify immediate and long-term educational and rehabilitation needs of cancer patients with ostomies, and (6) to generate hypotheses for intervention studies aimed at improving QOL for cancer patients with ostomies. A four dimensional model including psychological well being, physical well being, social well being, and spiritual well being forms the basis for the investigators' definition of QOL. The sample will consist of 190 patients with ostomies. The study includes a descriptive phase (40 patients) and an instrument testing phase (150 patients). Phase I will involve in-depth interviews of 40 patients and 4 focus groups. Patients will be stratified by type of ostomy (bowel diversion versus urinary diversion) and time since surgery (lessor than 2 months, greater than 2 months to 12 months, greater than 12 months to 24 months, and more than 24 months). The interviews will follow qualitative methodology with content analysis to extract themes regarding the four domains of QOL and various rehabilitative and teaching needs. Data from the 40 patient and 4 focus groups will be used to refine the QOL instruments for Phase II. In Phase II, the 150 patients with ostomies stratified as above will be surveyed with the revised instrument. Analysis will include the psychometric properties of the revised instrument and identification of hypotheses for future studies aimed at improving QOL in this population of cancer patients. The investigative team involves interdisciplinary representation from Nursing Research, Enterostomal Therapy, Nursing, General Oncologic Surgery, and Urologic Oncology. This study will add to our understanding of QOL and rehabilitation issues in cancer patients with ostomies.