Investigation of the effect of mobile lymphedema self-care support program on self-care, quality of life and symptoms related to lymphedema in women with breast cancer-related lymphedema

The study was conducted to examine the effects of the Mobile Lymphedema Self-Care Support Program (m-LScS) on self-care, quality of life and symptoms related to lymphedema (LE) in women with breast cancer related lymphedema (BCRL). The research consists of two stages. The first stage is of methodological type and the Breast Cancer Related Lymphedema Self-Care Scale (BCRLScS) was developed and its psychometric properties were examined. The sample consisted of 210 women with BCRL, and as a result, BCRLScS was found to be a valid and reliable. The second phase of the study was conducted between January and December 2021, in accordance with the randomized controlled experimental design. The population of the research consisted of patients registered in Ege University, Tülay Aktaş Oncology Hospital, LE unit. In the study, online standard LE training was given to the experimental (n=37) and control (n=35) groups, and the experimental group was also uploaded to the m-LScS telephones developed within the scope of the study and shown how to be used. The data of the study were collected by calling the patients before the intervention, the first month and the third month after the intervention. Research data were collected using 'Sociodemographic and Clinical Characteristics Form', 'BCRLScS', 'Lymphedema Quality of Life Scale-arm (LQOLS)', 'Lymphedema Symptom Intensity and Severity Scale (LSIDS)' and arm circumference measurement. Necessary ethics committee, institutional permissions and verbal consent of the patients were obtained. The data were evaluated with the SPSS 24 package program using number, percentage, mean, variance analysis in single-factor and double-factor repeated measurements, student t, chi-square, mann-whitney u, friedman, wilcoxon tests. In the experimental group, while there was a difference between the mean scores of BCRLScS according to the use of m-LScS (pgroup=0.045, ptime=0.000, pgroup*time=0.027), there was no difference in terms of the mean scores of LQOLS and LSIDS. It was determined that the self-care score of the experimental group increased over time, the quality of life score improved, the symptom decreased and arm measurements decreased (p<0.05). It was found that the symptom scores and arm measurements of the control group decreased over time (p<0.05). The mobile LE self-care support program is a useful method in improving self-care and quality of life, and in reducing the amount of symptoms in women with BCRL. Keywords: breast cancer-related lymphedema, mobile application, self-care, quality of life, symptom