Development of an educational intervention program promoting self-management to prevent lymphedemas following gynecology cancer treatment

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Objective: We developed and evaluated an educational intervention program to promote self-management (SM) to prevent gynecologic cancer patients from developing lymphedemas following cancer treatment. Method: A randomized controlled trial was conducted with an envelope method identifying subjects consenting to participate in the study. Six months after the intervention, we investigated (1) conditions of edemas, (2) health problem coping, (3) self-efficacy, and (4) SM activities. Results: Of 109 subjects, we collected 38 responses for the intervention group (IG) (68 %) and 33 for the control group (CG) (62 %). For (1), there were more patients diagnosed to suffer from lymphedemas in the CG than in the IG. For (2), there were fewer patients who coped with health problems in the CG than in the IG. For (3), there was no significant difference between the two. For (4), the CG was lower than the IG. Discussion: Findings showed a significant efficacy of SM in the prevention of lymphedema.