1Clinical Nurse Specialist, Psychiatric Department, PSG Hospital, Coimbatore
2Associate Professor, Mental Health (Psychiatric) Nursing, PSG College of Nursing, Coimbatore
3Professor and HOD, Department of Mental Health (Psychiatric) Nursing, Saveetha College of Nursing, Saveetha University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
*Corresponding Author: Mr. M. Baskaran Associate Professor Department of Mental Health (Psychiatric) Nursing. PSG College of Nursing, Coimbatore. Tamil Nadu Email: baskirathi@gmail.com
Online published on 9 October, 2018.
Cancer is the leading cause of disease worldwide. An estimated 12.7 million new cancer cases occurred in 2008. Cancer of the lip and oral cavity accounted for 2% of cancer cases worldwide.1
The objectives of the study were to
Assess the level of depression among oral cancer patient.
Associate the level of depression with the selected demographic variables.
descriptive research design was adopted. Convenient sampling technique was used and 60 patients were selected at Erode Cancer Centre, Erode. The data was collected, organized and analyzed in terms of both descriptive and inferential statistics.
The study results showed that a vast majority of them ie. 135(50%) had moderate level of depression followed by 9(6%) of them who had mild depression, 4(2.7%) who had sever level of depression and mean 37.34 and standard deviation 18.18. Chi square test revealed there was a significant association in the level of depression of oral cancer patient receiving radiation therapy with the selected demographic variables such as age, gender, marital status, availability the family support, & educational status at p< 0.05 level.
This finding would be useful and beneficial to healthcare services which might improve in management and intervention on psychological of patient undergoing radiation therapy. Other factors that contributed to depression among cancer patient also need to be investigated.
Depression, Oral, Cancer, Patients, Radiation Therapy
