The effect of tranditional and complementary therapy use on patient complaints i̇n cancer patienst

The study was planned to evaluate the effect of traditional and complementary treatment use on symptoms in cancer patients. The population of the descriptive study consisted of all patients treated in a chemotherapy unit in 2022, and the sample consisted of 131 patients who agreed to participate in the study. The data were collected through the questionnaire form prepared by the researchers and containing sociodemographic characteristics, the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Approaches Scale (CAM), the SF36 Quality of Life Scale and the Nightingale Symptom Rating Scale. Percentages, averages, t-test, One-Way Annova test and Pearson correlation test were used to evaluate the data. 42,7% of the cases were diagnosed with breast cancer and 19.1% were diagnosed with lung cancer. 18,3% of the cases are knowledgeable about complementary and alternative treatments. 5,3% of the cases stated that they had previously used complementary and alternative treatment methods. Patients prefer to use nutritional (yogurt, red meat and vegetables) approaches rather than traditional and complementary treatment approaches. This is followed by cognitive-behavioral therapies and manipulative approaches (praying, laughing and praying) and herbal approaches (linden, rosehip tea and vitamin), respectively. CAM cognitive sub-dimension scores of the subjects differed significantly from sociodemographic characteristics according to gender, vegetative sub-dimension scores differed significantly according to age, and CAM total scores differed significantly according to age (p<0,05). One of the health/disease-related features of the patients' CAM cognitive sub-dimension score, being operated; The total score of CAM differs significantly according to the type of cancer (p<0,05). In the cases, it was observed that there was a significant relationship between the CAM score and the Nightingale Symptom Assessment Scale and SF 36 Quality of Life Scale scores (p<0,05). The use of traditional and complementary treatment methods in the cases affects the symptom level and quality of life.