Engelsk titel: Cancer patients' experiences with unconventional treatment
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Författare:
Rönnov L
;
Kimby CK
;
Launsö L
;
Langgaard H
Email: LL@dfuni.dk
Språk: Dan
Antal referenser: 16
Dokumenttyp:
Artikel
UI-nummer: 04061395
Sammanfattning
Introduction: The objective of this article is to describe the changes in health experienced by cancer patients receiving unconventional treatment. We distinguish between two treatment modalities of unconventional treatment: standardized and individual. We examine the importance of each treatment modality to the experienced improvements in health. Materials and methods: Our data come from a study of two questionnaires distributed to the patients when they started unconventional treatment and one questionnaire distributed when they had received unconventional treatment for two months. Results: 68% of the patients experienced an improvement in their courage to face life; 57% felt an improvement in energy; 54% felt better physically; and 45% experienced relief from pain. The cancer patients considered both the treatment and their own efforts to be important factors in the improvement of their health. More patients receiving individual unconventional treatment had a positive experience than did patients receiving standardized unconventional treatment. In addition, more patients receiving individual unconventional treatment than patients receiving standardized unconventional treatment stressed the importance of their own efforts. Discussion: The results indicate that unconventional treatment, both standardized and individual, is of significance to the patient-experienced outcomes. The selection of patients may imply that the study was comprised by the majority of patients being those who - according to their therapists - would benefit positively from the treatment. The results should be judged against this background. The results point to the importance of including differences in standardized and individual treatment in understanding outcomes of unconventional treatments. Whether the differences between standardized and individual treatment could be important in connection with cancer patients' experiences with conventional treatment is an essential issue for further research.