Evaluation of a Nurse-led Aftercare Intervention for Patients With Head and Neck Cancer Treated With Radiotherapy and Cisplatin or Cetuximab.
Cora Braat, Gerda M Verduijn, Heleen A van der Stege and 4 others
PMID 35089872WHAT IT FOUND
Quality of life and patient-centered care did not differ between nurse-led aftercare patients and historical usual-care controls, though patients valued the patient-prioritised conversation tool.
Key findings
01Health-related quality of life did not differ significantly between the intervention group and historical controls.
02Within the intervention group, medium effect sizes were reported for physical functioning, cognitive functioning, symptoms, pain, trouble with social eating, teeth, dry mouth and sticky saliva.
03Nearly all fourteen domains rated important by intervention patients were addressed, but shared decision-making was addressed in only half of cases.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 27 intervention patients were included and 6 dropped out, so the study is too small to draw firm conclusions. The control group was historical rather than randomly assigned, so differences may be due to patient selection or timing rather than the intervention. Patients came from one specialist hospital in the Netherlands, so results may not apply to other settings or populations. Many eligible patients were excluded because of disease progression, death, withdrawal or non-response, so participants may not represent all patients after head and neck cancer treatment. Within-group quality-of-life changes could reflect normal recovery rather than the intervention.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the within-group quality-of-life effect sizes as evidence the intervention worked. Between-group comparisons on the primary outcomes were not significant, and the authors state the within-group changes could also be normal recovery after treatment.