The Effect of Pain Self-Management Education on Pain Severity and Quality of Life in Metastatic Cancer Patients

Abstract

Objective: Proper pain control in cancer patients is one of the prime needs of metastatic cancer patients. It is, then, one of the essential objectives of health care workers. The present study aimed to pinpoint the impact of pain self-management education on the pain severity and the quality of life in patients with metastatic cancers using complementary medicine approaches. Methods: This clinical trial study was performed in the Oncology Specialty Clinic of Ahvaz Golestan Hospital on 82 metastatic cancer patients picked based on inclusion criteria. They were randomly assigned to two groups: the intervention group and one as the control group. In the intervention group, pain self-management was taught in the three steps of providing information, skill development, and guidance. Self-management approaches were also practically taught face to face along with feedback. Furthermore, the quality of life was measured at 1-and 3-month follow-ups and the pain severity was measured during 7 weeks. In the control group, the quality of life questionnaire and the pain severity checklist were given to the participants to fill out. Finally, data were analyzed through SPSS version 22 in general and repeated-measures ANOVA and Friedman tests. Results: It was observed that after the intervention, the trend of pain severity during weeks 1–7 was significantly different in the intervention and control groups ( P < 0.0001). In addition, a significant difference was observed for the quality of life at 1 and 3 months after the intervention between the two studied groups ( P < 0.0001). Conclusions: Findings of the present study indicate a positive impact of pain self-management on improving pain severity and the indicators of quality of life in metastatic cancer patients. Accordingly, the current study findings can help nurses, nursing students, and other team members improve pain control skills and subsequently increase the quality of life in patients with metastatic cancers.

Effects of self‐management interventions for cancer patients with pain: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials

“…Koller et al (2018) and Raphaelis et al (2020) demonstrated a noticeable decrease in average pain and worst pain intensity; however, minor effects between‐group differences were found during the study period. Musavi et al (2021) reported a significant difference between the pain intensity levels in the two groups from the second week after the intervention ( p < .0001).…”

“…Four studies usedQoL as a secondary outcome. They were assessed using the validated European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ C30)(Jahn et al, 2014;Musavi et al, 2021;Raphaelis et al, 2020) and a 12-item self-report tool(Koller et al, 2018). Two studies assessed patients' pain-related knowledge.F I G U R E 3 Risk of bias summary.…”

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