Objective To systematically assess the effectiveness of self-management during adjuvant treatment for breast cancer.
Methods Through formulating the inclusion and exclusion criteria and the search strategy, such databases as The Cochrane Library, PubMed (1966 to 2010), OVID, ELSEVIER, CINAHL, EMbase, CNKI (1980 to 2010), WanFang Data, VIP (1989 to 2010) and CBM (1978 to 2010) were searched to collect the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about postoperative self-management in breast cancer. Two reviewers evaluated the quality of the included studies, extracted and crosschecked the data; the Review Manager 5.0 software was used to perform the test for heterogeneity, and the cumulative effect was calculated with either fixed or random effects models.
Results Among the included ten studies in English, three revealed that the program of self-management had no impact on the overall life quality of patients, three revealed that it could enhance the self-care ability of patients (P=0.004), three revealed that it could not reduce the anxiety level of patients, and two revealed that it had certain influence on the depression level of patients.
Conclusion The program of self-management can enhance the patients’ self-care ability, but its influence on patients’ overall life quality as well as the level of anxiety and depression is still undefined.
Citation： NING Xiangxiang,YIN Zhiqin,ZANG Yuantong. Effectiveness of Self-Management in Breast Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review. Chinese Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine, 2011, 11(9): 1033-1038. doi: 10.7507/1672-2531.20110173 Copy