Development and Evaluation of an Infection Prevention Self-care Application for Cancer Patients with Chemotherapy

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to develop and evaluate an infection prevention self-care application for cancer patients who have been discharged from hospital after receiving chemotherapy. METHODS: The app was developed through five stages analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. The app's contents included infection prevention education, checking daily self-management, checking daily inquiry and information about the app. Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy were asked to use the app and then a nonequivalent control group non-synchronized design was conducted to analyze the effect of the app on infection prevention self-care knowledge, self-care performance, infection occurrence and temperature. Twenty-two patients in the experimental group and twenty-four patients in the control group participated in this study. RESULTS: The self-care knowledge score (t=6.74, p<.001) and self-care performance score (t=13.44, p<.001) were statistically higher in the experimental group compared with the control group respectively. The infection occurrence was not different between the experimental and control groups. But temperature in the control group was statistically higher than in the experimental group (t=-2.39, p=.021). CONCLUSION: The infection prevention self-care application for cancer patients receiving chemotherapy was an effective intervention to decrease infections during home care.