Influences of transitional care on early quality of life in esophageal cancer patients after surgery

Objective To investigate the influences of transitional care on early quality of life in esophageal cancer patients after surgery. Methods A total of 195 patients with esophageal cancer were randomly divided into control group (98 cases, regular follow-up) and observation group (97 cases, transitional care) according to random number table. And then, the readmission rate of 2 months post discharge was compared in patients between two groups. Besides, quality of life of patients was evaluated with the quality of life questionnaire core 30 (QLQ-C30) at discharge and 2 months after intervention. Results The readmission rate of 2 months post-discharge of observation group and control group were 5.2%, 16.3% with a significant difference (χ2=6.332, P=0.012). There were no statistically significant differences in the scores of functional items and symptom items of QLQ-C30 (P>0.05). After the interventions, the scores of general health, emotional function and social function in observation group were higher than those in control group; the scores of fatigue, pain, insomnia, difficult breathing, loss of appetite in observation group were lower than those in control group; there were statistically significant differences between two groups (P<0.05). Conclusions Transitional care can provide positive guidance for living condition of patients with esophageal cancer, improve patients′ living condition so as to improve patients′ early quality of life. Key words: Esophageal neoplasms; Quality of life; Transitional care