An Evidence-based Nursing Faculty Mentoring Program

Alopecia is a significant and disturbing side effect of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy induced alopecia generally put impact upon the body image of the person. Hair loss usually starts within a few days to few weeks after starting Chemotherapy. People undergoing chemotherapy has a traumatic feeling for hair loss. For some females it is more traumatic to face the alopecia than mastectomy. Hence, it is important to conduct an exploratory study to assess the grade of alopecia and perceived body image among breast cancer patients with alopecia. Total 60 patients, who attended oncology OPD and admitted in oncology wards, were selected by Purposive sampling technique to collect the data. Modified Dr. P. Hopwood's Body Image Scale (2000) was used to assess the perceived body image and World Health Organization classification was used to assess grade of alopecia among breast cancer patients with alopecia. The findings revealed that maximum number of the patients 49(81.6%) had grade III alopecia followed by less than 1/4th of patients 10(16.8%) who had grade II alopecia and only one patient 01(01.6%) had grade I alopecia. None of the patients had grade IV alopecia. More than half of the patients 33(55.0%) had satisfactory perception for their body image followed by less than half of the patients 23(38.33%) had good perception and only four patients 04(6.67%) had poor perception for their body image. Among the categories of the tool (Modified Dr. P. Hopwood's Body Image Scale), it was found that perceived physical appearance(22.70±05.17) was most affected domain among breast cancer patients followed by Coping strategies (16.88±04.09), and affect on Feminity (10.33±02.04), Intimate relationship (06.76±02.80) was the least affected domain.