Relationships among Symptoms, Symptom Management, Sense of Coherence, and Quality of Life in Patients with Hepatobiliary Carcinoma

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationships among symptoms, symptom management, sense of coherence, and quality of life in patients with hepatobiliary carcinoma. One hundred and fifty of hepatobiliary carcinoma patients were recruited using a simple sampling technique from In-Patients Department of Sanphasitthi prasong Hospital, and Maharat Nakornratchasima Hospital. The instruments used for data collection were the demographic data form, symptom questionnaires, symptom management questionnaires, sense of coherence questionnaires, and FACT - G questionnaires.  These instruments were tested for their content validity by a panel of experts. Internal consistency reliability for each questionnaires tested by Cronbach’s alpha were .81, .74, .86 and .93, respectively. Data were analyzed by using means, standard deviation, and Pearson’s production-moment correlation.          The study findings revealed that patients with hepatobiliary carcinoma had moderate level of quality of life (x = 58.40, S.D. = 11.61). Symptom was negatively significantly correlated with quality of life in patients with hepatobiliary carcinoma (r = -. 306, r.05). On the other hand, sense of coherence was positively significantly correlated with quality of life in patients with hepatobiliary carcinoma (r = .338, r.05).