Papéis ocupacionais e autocuidado em pacientes oncológicos submetidos à quimioterapia

Abstract

Chemotherapy causes toxic effects that can be minimized and even avoided from health care that should also be performed by the patient himself. Self-care has been pointed out in the literature as an important health strategy to guarantee the functionality and even the survival of cancer. So, symptoms are reduced and participation in life activities is sought in order to maintain functionality. Therefore, the activities are permeated by the occupational roles played by each person in their life contexts. This study aimed to analyze the occupational roles and self-care capacity of oncological patients, adults and elderly, submitted to chemotherapy treatment in a university hospital. This is a crosssectional quantitative study performed at the Chemotherapy Center of the Clinical Hospital of the Federal University of Triângulo Mineiro with 79 participants. In the interviews, a socio demographical and clinical evaluation questionnaire was used, the MDASI Cancer Center Symptom Inventory, the Role Checklist and the Self-Care Capacity Assessment Scale-ASAS-R. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences - SPSS Statistics 21.0 was used to perform the statistical analyzes of Student's t-Test and Pearson and Spearman Correlations.The simultaneous influence of demographic, clinical and role predictors on self-care was performed through multiple linear regression analysis, adopting the level of significance of α = 0.05. The sample had a mean age of 56.9 years, most married (58.2%), with low income and little schooling. Cancer of the gastrointestinal system was the most common (35.4%) and curative chemotherapy was the most frequent (50.6%). Fatigue and lack of appetite were the reported symptoms by 60.4% and, 78.5% reported that their life activities were the most affected area by them. The role of "worker" was the one of greatest loss and the one of "family member" most played after the beginning of the chemotherapy. High self-care scores were identified, mainly related to the greater degree of importance of "friend" role and the interference of symptoms in life activities. Given the mentioned above, it is important for the health professional to contemplate the symptoms resulting from the treatment and how they affect activities and the social support network of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.