Knowledge of and Compliance with Neutropenic Diet in Patients with Hematologic Malignancy undergoing Chemotherapy

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate knowledge of and compliance with the neutropenic diet in hemato-oncology patients undergoing chemotherapy. METHODS: 123 hemato-oncology patients who had more than one chemotherapy participated in this study. Data were collected with a self-administered questionnaire from July 21 to September 26, 2014, and analyzed with SPSS 21.0 program using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA and Pearson's correlation. RESULTS: The average of score for the neutropenic diet was 60.9 out of 100 points and mean compliance score was 69.5 out of 100 percent scale. For preventing infection, patients were found to be stricter in their intake of restricted foods than acceptable foods during neutropenia. There were significant correlations between the knowledge of and compliance with the neutropenic diet in patients receiving chemotherapy (r=.53, p<.001). CONCLUSION: It is necessary to nursing assessment and education should include a periodic assessment of nutritional status and risk evaluation of neutropenia and bacterial infections. This study recommended nursing research to establish a recommendation criterion for a restrictive neutropenic diet and less restrictive food safety education programs for cancer patients.