The Role of Family Care on the Quality of Life of Patients With Permanent Enterostomies: A Chain-Mediated Effect of Inner Strength and Patient Activation.
Juecen Liu, Yating Xu, Meixuan Song and 1 others
PMID 41872709WHAT IT FOUND
Among 304 patients with permanent stomas, family care was linked to better quality of life through patients' inner strength and confidence in self-management.
The survey cannot show family care caused improvement.
Key findings
01Family care was significantly positively correlated with inner strength, patient activation, and quality of life (all p < 0.01).
02After controlling for sex, age, education, marital status, payment method, income and stoma duration, family care had a significant total effect on quality of life (β = 0.257, p < 0.05).
03Inner strength and patient activation partially mediated the association: family care to inner strength to quality of life β = 0.078, family care to patient activation to quality of life β = 0.044, and family care to inner strength to patient activation to quality of life β = 0.029, with total mediation effect 0.151 (all p < 0.05).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study measured everything at one time, so it cannot show that family care caused inner strength, activation, or quality of life. Participants were recruited by convenience sampling from one tertiary hospital in China, so results may not apply to other settings. All information came from patient self-report questionnaires. The study did not test an intervention, so it cannot show what nurses should do to improve outcomes. Sample size was chosen by rules of thumb rather than a prior power calculation.
Declared interests
This study was funded by the Science and Technology Program of Sichuan Province (grant no. 2020JDKP0095) and the Sichuan Medical Association Special Research Project on Wounds and Chronic Diseases (Taige) (grant no. 2024TG15). The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that increasing family care will improve quality of life. This was a one-time survey of patients at one hospital, so it shows associations, not cause.