The Effect of Palliative Care toward the Level of Anxiety and Pap Smear among Cervical Cancer Patients
Asrin1,Siti Mulidah2,Welas Haryati3
Copyright : © 2017 . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Background: Cervix cancer is cancer attacking uterus in area of cervix uterus or neck uterus. It is the biggest number of women malignancy disease. Prevalence of cervical cancer in Indonesia is 4.3 per 1000 of populations. The highest prevalence is in Yogyakarta which is 9.6 per 1000 of populations. The recovery rate of cervical cancer from palliative stage is low making patients always suffer from physical and psychological problems that can cause anxiety.
The Objective: This study was conducted to know the effect of palliative care toward the level of anxiety and Pap Smear for cervical cancer patients.
Method: The type of this study is quasi experimental with one group pre and post test design. The population were all 41 cervical cancer patients admitted in Margono Soekarjo Hospital, Purwokerto, Indonesia during 2016. The anxiety questionnaire was used to find out the level of anxiety and Wilcoxon test was applied to find the difference before and after palliative treatment.
Result: The levels of cervical cancer anxiety before and after palliative care in average are 27 and 20 indicating the decrease of 7 points, and statistical test confirms there is a significant effect of palliative care toward the level of anxiety (p=0.000) and pap smear (0.003) for patients with cervical cancer.
Conclusion:The palliative care can cause the decrease of anxiety and pap smear level for patients with cervical cancer.
1. Introduction
2. Materials And Methods
Respondents' education shows that most are in primary education (85.4%) and secondary education (only senior high school) is 14.6%. The results of this study in accordance with research of Susilawati (2013) that the education level of majority of respondents are in elementary school (46.7%). A low level of education results in a lack of maternal knowledge in dealing with problems, while mothers with higher levels of education are generally welcome to accept changes or new things to maintain their health (Notoatmodjo, 2003).
56.1% respondents do not work (as housewives) and those who are employed (43.9%) mostly work as traders in the market. The results of this study are in line with previous studies which also showed that the majority of respondents (50%) of cervical cancer patients are working as housewives (Susilawati, 2013).
The socioeconomic condition of the respondents show that more than half (63.4%) whose income are below the minimum regional wage (Rp 1.350.000, approxiately USD 100) and 36.6% with income above minimum regional wage. The result of this research is similar to the research conducted by Mukharomah (2016) that some respondents have low income level.
2.1.2. Level Of Anxiety
Table2. shows that the anxiety level of cervical cancer patients before being given paliatif care, the average score is 27 and after being given paliatif care, the average score is 20 experiencing an average decrease of 7 points.
The anxiety level of cervical cancer patients following the chemotherapy program generally indicated no anxiety (40%), mild anxiety (30%), moderate anxiety (20%), and severe anxiety (10%). From the data, there found 4 (four) important factors triggerring the anxiety of cervical cancer patients who follow chemotherapy program: a) cost, b) fear on the side effects of chemotherapy, c) being pessimistic that treatment is not successful, d) consideration / struggle for the family (Yolanda & Karwur, 2013).
2.1.3. Pap Smear Patients With Cervical Cancer Before And After Palliative Care
The results of Pap smear examination of respondents before paliatif care conducted to all 41 respondents who suffered from cancer with stages varying from I, II, III, and after Palliative Care there are 7 respondents having negative pap smear (no malignancy) and 34 respondents in positive pap smear ( there is a ferocity).
One of the causes of declining immunity is the presence of stress that will weaken the immune response. In a state of stress or emotion such as anger and sadness, the hypothalamus which is the center of emotions will be aroused and then will stimulate the pituitary gland which then will stimulate the adrenal glands so that glucocorticoid hormones come out. The excessive hormone excess will result in antibodies and the inflammatory response decreases. The decline of this immune system facilitates the entry of cancer cells to attack the body, because the ability of these cells to recognize and fight the enemy can not function properly. It can be concluded that psychological stress affects the destruction of the ability of cell killing naturally for the destruction of tumor cells or cancer cells (Lubis, N.L. & Hasnida. 2009).
2.1.4. Effect Of Palliative Care On Anxiety Levels And Pap Smears On Cervical Cancer Patients
Based on Table 3, this study concludes that there is the positive influence of palliative care to decrease the anxiety level of cervical cancer patients (p = 0.000). This study is in line with Susilawati (2013) that there is a strong relationship between family support and anxiety level of patients with palliative cervical cancer. Family coupling in the face of cervical cancer patients during chemotherapy is to seek social support, seek entertainment, seek information, control feelings, see the positive side of the problem, and spiritual support.
Anxiety is a common response after cancer is diagnosed. Based on interviews conducted by Utami & Hasanat (1998), when they know that they have cancer, cancer patients will experience an unpleasant psychological condition, such as feeling shocked, anxious, fearful, confused, sad, panicked, anxious or feel alone, and overshadowed by death. Anxiety increases as individuals imagine a change in their life in the future as a result of illness or the consequences of the process of handling a disease. Sometimes the process of handling the cancer is very burdensome for patients than the disease itself, for example the process of radiation and drugs used to kill cancer cells can cause body damage even potentially to cause loss of body functions that can not be repaired. The process of handling cancer is also accompanied by pain, anxiety, sexual dysfunction, and the possibility of hospitalization for a long time (Lubis, NL & Hasnida, 2009). Family support for cervical cancer patients who received chemotherapy is to give spirit, motivate, give advice, always take care of cancer patient, always accompany patient when treatment, and fulfill patient desire (Kharisma, 2014).
3. Conclusion
References