The effect of lymphedema self-care on quality of life in breast cancer-related lymphedema patients

This descriptive study was conducted to examine the effect of lymphedema self-care on the quality of life in patients who developed lymphedema due to breast cancer. The sample of the study consisted of 167 patients treated in the medical oncology, surgical oncology and plastic surgery services of Ankara University Faculty of Medicine hospital. Socio-demographic information form, Lymphedema quality of life scale and breast cancer-related lymphedema self-care scale were used to collect data. Before the research; Ethics committee permission, institutional permission and patient consent were obtained. Data analysis was made with IBM SPSS Statistics 26 program. Data was summarized by; using number, percentage, mean and standard deviation methods. Relationships between two independent numerical variables were interpreted with Pearson Correlation Coefficient, and differences between two independent groups were interpreted with Mann Whitney U analysis. Differences between more than two independent groups were interpreted with Kruskal Wallis analysis. The average score of the volunteers participating in the study on the Lymphedema Quality of Life Scale- Sleeve is 2.32 ± 0.42. The average score of the Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema Self-Care Scale is 86.80 ± 11.86. The average Quality of Life Assessment score was calculated as 5.94 ± 2.33. As a result, a statistically significant relationship was found between lymphedema education, lymphedema stage, presence of chronic disease, alcohol use, use of assistive devices, duration of diagnosis, emotional state, limb with lymphedema develops and dominant hand and lymphedema self-care. It is thought that this study will form the basis for studies to be carried out in this field in Turkey. Awareness on lymphedema should be raised.