The Effect of Semi-sitting Position on Chemotherapy-induced Nausea and Vomiting in Women with Breast Bancer

Abstract

Background: Chemotherapy is recognized as a primary cancer treatment method, but despite its benefits, it causes side-effects. The most important of these side-effects are nausea and vomiting. Given the simplicity of use of non-medicinal methods such as semi-sitting position, which can be performed by the patient alone, with the least effort and no side-effects, this method can be utilized to improve quality of life in women with breast cancer in hospitals and oncology clinics. However, there is little information about the effectiveness of non-medicinal methods mostly used by nurses. Thus, this study aimed to compare the effects of non-medicinal interventions on nausea and vomiting induced by chemotherapy in women with breast cancer.Methods: This study was a clinical trial, with a statistical population consisting of women with breast cancer undergoing treatment with three medicines; Cyclophosphamide, 5-fluorouracil, and Adriamycin. To collect data, the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), and vomiting and nausea frequency questionnaire were used. Patients were randomly divided into two groups (30 each) of control and semi-sitting position. Intensity and frequency of nausea and vomiting were assessed and compared before, during, 8, 16, and 24 hours after the inception chemotherapy.Results: Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation), and t-test were used to assess the differences between the two groups. The significance level was considered less than 0.05. the results showed that the frequency and intensity of nausea in the control group were 14.43 and 3.09, respectively, and in the semi-sitting group 5.68 and 1.38, respectively. Also, the frequency and intensity of vomiting in the control group were 11.03 and 2.45, respectively, and in the half sitting group 4.8 and 1.10, respectively.Conclusion: The study indicated the effectiveness of semi-sitting method in women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Ease of use, inexpensiveness, and lack of side-effects make the widespread use of this method much more practical.