THE EFFECT OF CAREGIVERS ON THE CHILDREN WITH CANCER UNDERGOING CHEMOTHERAPY TO PREVENT GASTROINTESTINAL SIDE EFFECTS OF CHEMOTHERAPY

Gastrointestinal side effects are among the most common side effects of
chemotherapy on the compliance of the patient. Therefore, understanding the symptoms and how to
prevent them in the process of the treatment and prevention of recurrent hospitalization can be highly
helpful. This study aimed to study the effect of mothers' empowerment on their children's
gastrointestinal side effects.
Materials & Methods: This study is a Quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group design which
was carried out in Dr Sheikh Hospital in Mashhad in 2013. Empowerment program was in three
empowerment sessions with focus on its complications: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, and
loss of appetite which were trained on experimental group. The program was developed and based on
the process of empowerment as conceptualized by Gibson’s theory program, composing 4 steps. To
gather the data, standard questionnaires on chemotherapy side effects were applied in three stages of
before, during and after the intervention. For data analysis, SPSS software, version 18 was used.
Results: Average side effects in intervention group after the intervention were lower than the control
group. Nausea from 53/7% to 26/3%, vomiting from 66/7% to 33/3%, diarrhea from 50% to 10%,
constipation from 33/6% to 6/7% and loss of appetite from 93/3% to 36/7% were decreased respectively
in the intervention group, and significant differences were seen( p<0/001).
Conclusions: The empowerment program in mothers with gastrointestinal cancerous children can help
them to discover and use critical thinking skills, enhance their ability, which results in decreasing the
side effects in children undergoing chemotherapy