References
Sociodemographic characteristics and self-care management knowledge of patients with an ostomy
Abstract
Background:
An increasing number of patients worldwide are living with an ostomy. Among them, self-care management skills and stoma self-care abilities are associated with better quality of life.
Aims:
To identify the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of Italian ostomy patients and investigate their knowledge of stoma management.
Methods:
A questionnaire was used to gather the sociodemographic and clinical data of 433 adult patients. Participants responded to a nine-item survey assessing their knowledge of stoma management.
Findings:
Respondents reported having received extensive or adequate information in 64.4% of cases, and the remaining 35.6% reported receiving little or no information at any time. The health professional who imparted at least adequate information was a stoma nurse specialist in 32.1% of cases, usually during admission (24.0%) or before and during admission (19.6%).
Conclusion:
This study demonstrated that most patients received adequate information regarding the ostomy.
An ostomy is a surgically created opening in the abdomen that re-routes bodily wastes (faeces and urine) to exit the intestine (Sun et al, 2020) or the urinary tract, and is a common outcome worldwide; in the USA, one million people are living with an ostomy (Maydick-Youngberg, 2017), while in Europe the number is around 700 000 (Claessens et al, 2015). Colorectal cancer and bladder cancer are among the main causes of temporary or permanent ostomies (Vonk-Klaassen et al, 2016; Merandy et al, 2017). It has been estimated that 18–35% of colorectal cancer survivors received temporary or permanent intestinal ostomies as part of their cancer treatment (Sun et al, 2013). Colorectal cancer and bladder cancer are common cancers worldwide (Bray et al, 2018) and have a 5-year survival rate of 40–65% (Liu et al, 2016; Siegel et al, 2017). All the statistics reported above suggest that there is a growing number of individuals living longer with a history of colorectal or bladder cancer and, consequently, with an ostomy.
Register now to continue reading
Thank you for visiting British Journal of Nursing and reading some of our peer-reviewed resources for nurses. To read more, please register today. You’ll enjoy the following great benefits:
What's included
-
Limited access to clinical or professional articles
-
Unlimited access to the latest news, blogs and video content