Association Between Dyadic Coping and Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Patients and Their Spouses: An Actor-partner Interdependence Mediation Model.

PURPOSE: This study aims to examine the relationship between dyadic coping (DC), intimate relationship, and quality of life (QOL), and to explore the mediating role of intimate relationship in patients with breast cancer (BC) and their spouses from a dyadic perspective. METHODS: A cross-sectional design was used in this present study, and 205 dyads of BC patients and their spouses who completed a sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire and self-reported measures assessing their DC, intimate relationship, and QOL were recruited. The actor-partner interdependence mediation model (APIMeM) was adopted for dyadic distinguished data analysis. The paired t-test, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and the structural equation model were employed for data analysis by using SPSS 22.0 and Amos 24.0. RESULTS: The current study revealed that, for BC patients and their spouses, intimate relationship mediates completely the actor effect of DC on QOL. That is to say, DC was positively related to intimate relationship and then improved QOL. It was interesting to find that, for both patients and their spouses, the intimate relationship could exert a partner-actor complete mediation effect between DC and QOL. CONCLUSIONS: The DC perceived by both BC patients and their spouses has significant actor effects on QOL by improving the level of an intimate relationship. Furthermore, intimate relationship has significant actor-actor and partner-actor complete mediation effects for both patients and their spouses. Given the vital role of patient-spouse dyads, nursing staff should take patients' spouses into account when conducting related psychosocial interventions aiming to improve the QOL of BC patients and their spouses.

The Effect of Nursing Management of Patients Undergoing Interventional Therapy for Liver Cancer Compared with Standard Care on Patient-Reported Outcomes.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the efficacy of individualized symptom management based on patients' self-reports during interventional therapy (IT) for liver cancer. METHODS: Patients with liver cancer who recieved IT from April to August 2019 were assigned to either the intervention (n=70) or control group (n=70). The control group received routine nursing care and the intervention group received a nursing management program. The severity of specific symptoms, as measured by the Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS), and satisfaction with nursing care, were analyzed. RESULTS: Compared to the control group, patients given individualized management experienced significantly less severe pain, nausea, anxiety, and fatigue (p < .05). The scores for KPS and satisfaction with care were both significantly improved in the intervention group than in the control group (p < .05). CONCLUSION: This high-quality nursing management program predicated on patients' self-reports is worthy of clinical application and popular adoption.